Onghena L, Develtere W, Poppe C, Geerts A, Troisi R, Vanlander A, Berrevoet F, Rogiers X, Van Vlierberghe H, Verhelst X. Quality of life after liver transplantation: State of the art. World J Hepatol 2016; 8(18): 749-756 [PMID: 27366301 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i18.749]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Xavier Verhelst, MD, Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185 - 1K12IE, 9000 Gent, East Flanders, Belgium. xavier.verhelst@uzgent.be
Research Domain of This Article
Transplantation
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Jun 28, 2016; 8(18): 749-756 Published online Jun 28, 2016. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i18.749
Quality of life after liver transplantation: State of the art
Louis Onghena, Wouter Develtere, Carine Poppe, Anja Geerts, Roberto Troisi, Aude Vanlander, Frederik Berrevoet, Xavier Rogiers, Hans Van Vlierberghe, Xavier Verhelst
Louis Onghena, Wouter Develtere, Anja Geerts, Hans Van Vlierberghe, Xavier Verhelst, Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Ghent University Hospital, 9000 Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium
Carine Poppe, Roberto Troisi, Aude Vanlander, Frederik Berrevoet, Xavier Rogiers, Department of General and Hepatobiliary Surgery, Liver Transplantation Service, Ghent University Hospital and Medical School, 9000 Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium
Author contributions: Onghena L, Develtere W, Poppe C, Geerts A, Troisi R, Vanlander A, Berrevoet F, Rogiers X, Van Vlierberghe H and Verhelst X collected and analyzed the data and wrote the paper with equal contribution.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other co-authors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xavier Verhelst, MD, Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185 - 1K12IE, 9000 Gent, East Flanders, Belgium. xavier.verhelst@uzgent.be
Telephone: +32-9-3322371 Fax: +32-9-3324984
Received: February 22, 2016 Peer-review started: February 25, 2016 First decision: April 15, 2016 Revised: May 4, 2016 Accepted: June 1, 2016 Article in press: June 3, 2016 Published online: June 28, 2016
Abstract
Quality of life (QoL) after deceased donor liver transplantation is increasingly recognized as a major outcome parameter. We reviewed recent publications in this rapidly evolving field in order to summarize recent achievements in the field and to define opportunities and perspectives for research and improvement of patient care. QoL does improve after liver transplantation according to a typical pattern. During the first year, there is a significant improvement in QoL. After one year, the improvement does stabilise and tends to decline slightly. In addition to the physical condition, different psychological parameters (such as depression, anxiety, sexual function) and sociodemographic elements (professional state, sex, marital state) seem to impact QoL. Opportunities for further research are the use of dedicated questionnaires and identification of influencing factors for QoL.
Core tip: Quality of life (QoL) after deceased donor liver transplantation (LT) is increasingly recognized as a major outcome parameter. This review summarizes a broad spectrum of factors that influence QoL in LT and elucidates the evolution in time of physical and mental QoL after LT. Furthermore attention is given to areas for further investigation and the use of self-report QoL questionnaires in LT. This way, we want to offer a recent and complete overview in this rapidly evolving field.
