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Quality of life 5 years following liver transplantation

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Indian Journal of Gastroenterology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Data on quality of life (QOL) among liver transplant recipients from India is scarce. We conducted a prospective assessment of QOL and incidence of complications 5 years following liver transplantation (LT).

Methods

Demographic data of 130 patients (M:F = 98:32, mean age 38.4 ± 14.9 years) who had completed at least 5 years after LT were collected and the incidence of new onset metabolic complications and renal dysfunction was analyzed. Liver transplant database (LTD QOL) questionnaire was given to 100 patients and scoring was done on five QOL domains. This was compared to a historical cohort from the liver transplant database of three transplant centres from North America, who had completed the same questionnaire before and 1 year after LT.

Results

The incidence of new onset dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, renal dysfunction, hypertension and overweight/obesity was 43%, 26.7%, 25%, 16.4% and 15.4%, respectively. Although ethanol-related cirrhosis was the etiology for transplant in 38%, recidivism was not evident in any recipient in this cohort even after 5 years. Significant improvement in QOL was observed in all five domains, namely measures of disease (p=0.001), psychological status (p=0.001), personal function (p=0.001), social and role function (p=0.001) and general health perception (p=0.001) in our patients 5 years after transplant compared to historical data.

Conclusion

Although metabolic disease is common after LT, there is significant improvement in long-term QOL. Recidivism appeared to be rare in our study population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, Amrita School of Pharmacy, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, 682 041, India

    Surya Raju & Uma Devi Padma

  2. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, 682 041, India

    Johns Shaji Mathew & Sudhindran S

Authors
  1. Surya Raju
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  2. Johns Shaji Mathew
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  3. Sudhindran S
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  4. Uma Devi Padma
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uma Devi Padma.

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Conflict of interest

SR, JSM, SS, and UDP declare no competing interests.

Ethics statement

The study was performed conforming to the Helsinki declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 and 2008 concerning human and animal rights, and the authors followed the policy concerning informed consent as shown on Springer.com.

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The authors are solely responsible for the data and the contents of the paper. In no way, the Honorary Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board Members, the Indian Society of Gastroenterology or the printer/publishers are responsible for the results/findings and content of this article.

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The work was done at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Solid Organ Transplantation, Amrtia Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre and Amrita School of Pharmacy

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Raju, S., Mathew, J.S., S, S. et al. Quality of life 5 years following liver transplantation. Indian J Gastroenterol 40, 353–360 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-021-01180-w

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