[Capacity of work and employment after kidney transplantation (author's transl)].

Employment and capacity of work were assessed in 69 kidney transplant recipients 6 to 144 months after transplantation. The results were correlated with patients age, transplant function and extrarenal complications, respectively. Fifty-one patients were fit for work. In this group 36 patients were fully employed, seven partially employed, one patient out of work and seven received unemployment benefit. Sixteen patients were partially or totally disabled. The age of the patients fit for work was 24 to 35 years and all patients receiving unemployment pay were older than 40 years. Employed transplant recipients formed the group with the best kidney function parameters, patients fit for work but unemployed showed only a slightly reduced transplant function. The results indicate that transplant function is the main precondition for capacity of work and employment. But the resumption of work also depends on the patients age and on the possibility to choose between employment and unemployment benefit.