Health-related quality of life in long-term ...

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Health-related quality of life in long-term liver transplant survivors

Health-related quality of life in long-term liver transplant survivors

Patients who survive for more than 10 years after liver transplantation
have significant cognitive dysfunction and poor health-related quality of
life, find researchers in the November issue of Liver Transplantation.

Several studies have investigated short-term effects of liver
transplantation on cognitive function and health-related quality of life.
However, there have been no studies which examine long-term effects.

In this study, a research team from Leeds, England examined 36 patients who
had received a single liver transplant at St James's University Hospital
prior to 1991.

The team assessed patients' cognitive function using the Mini-Mental State
Examination, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, trail-making tests, the
Stroop test, and the Benton Visual Retention Test.

They also evaluated anxiety and depression using the Hospital Anxiety and
Depression Scale.

In addition, patients' health-related quality of life was assessed using
the EuroQol.
Patients scored lower than controls across a wide range of cognitive functions.
Liver Transplantation

Of the 36 patients, the team included 12 in the study. Patients were
compared to 25 healthy controls.

The researchers found that, compared to the controls, patients scored
significantly lower on measures of health-related quality of life. However,
the team detected no differences in levels of anxiety or depression.

They also found that patients scored significantly lower than controls
across a wide range of cognitive functions.

Drs Mark Lewis and Peter Howdle concluded, "atients who survive for more
than 10 years after liver transplantation have significant cognitive
dysfunction and poor health-related quality of life".

"Whether these patients never return to normal after transplantation or
whether they experience an increased rate of decline in cognitive function
and health-related quality of life is uncertain".

In a related editorial in the same publication, Dr Kathleen Moore from
Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, also discusses quality of life
following liver transplantation.

Dr Moore concludes, that much more research is required in order "To
ascertain the long-term impact of liver transplantation on recipients'
cognitive functioning".

Liver Transpl 2003; 9: 1145-8
31 October 2003

"Enlightenment does not come 'by imagining figures of light but by making
the darkness conscious.'"  (Jung)