When does quality of life improve after liver transplantation? A longitudinal prospective study.

OBJECTIVES

We sought to investigate the improvement in quality of life (mental and physical components) at 1 and 6 months after liver transplantation.

METHODS

A sample of liver transplant candidates (n = 60), comprising consecutive patients attending outpatient clinics of a liver transplantation central unit (25% of the patients had familial amyloid polyneuropathy [FAP] and the remaining patents had chronic liver diseases), was assessed by means of the Short Form (SF)-36, Portuguese-validated version, a self-rating questionnaire developed by the Medical Outcome Trust, to investigate certain primary aspects of quality of life, at 3 times: before, and at 1 and 6 months after transplantation.

RESULTS

We observed a significant improvement in quality of life (both mental and physical components) by 1 month after transplantation. Between the first month and the sixth month after transplantation, there also was an improvement in the quality of life (both mental and physical components), although only the physical components of quality of life was significantly improved.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggested that quality of life improved early after liver transplantation (1 month). Between the first and the sixth months, there only was a significant improvement in the physical quality of life.