Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Oct 27, 2022; 14(10): 1899-1906
Published online Oct 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i10.1899
Quality of life, depression and anxiety in potential living liver donors for pediatric recipients: A retrospective single center experience
Paula K Reine, Flavia Feier, Eduardo Antunes da Fonseca, Rosely G Hernandes, Joao Seda-Neto
Paula K Reine, Rosely G Hernandes, Department of Psychology, Hospital Sírio-Libanês, São Paulo 01308901, Brazil
Flavia Feier, Department ofLiver Transplantation, Santa Casa de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre 90020090, Brazil
Eduardo Antunes da Fonseca, Joao Seda-Neto, Department of Liver Transplantation, Hospital Sírio-Libanês, São Paulo 01308901, Brazil
Author contributions: Reine PK contributed to study design, data collection, manuscript writing; Feier F contributed to data analysis, manuscript writing; Hernandes RG contributed to data collection, manuscript final version critical analysis; da Fonseca EA contributed to manuscript writing, manuscript final version critical analysis; Seda-Neto J contributed to study design, manuscript writing, data analysis.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved for publication by our Institutional Reviewer.
Informed consent statement: It was exempted because of the retrospective nature of the study by the Hospital’s Ethics Committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: The original anonymous dataset is available upon request from the corresponding author at joaoseda@gmail.com.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Joao Seda-Neto, PhD, Surgeon, Department of Liver Transplantation, Hospital Sírio-Libanês, Rua Adma Jafet, 91, São Paulo 01308901, Brazil. joaoseda@gmail.com
Received: June 6, 2022
Peer-review started: June 6, 2022
First decision: July 12, 2022
Revised: August 21, 2022
Accepted: September 21, 2022
Article in press: September 21, 2022
Published online: October 27, 2022
Processing time: 142 Days and 7.6 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

The role of pre-donation sociopsychological evaluation of the living donor liver candidate is as important to the success of the procedure as is the medical assessment. Psychological profiling of potential living liver donors (PLLD) and evaluation of quality of life (QOL) can influence outcomes.

Research motivation

Adequately profiling potential donors may help the transplant team to better guide them through the donation processes. Detection of depression and anxiety among potential donors may influence the pre donation evaluation.

Research objectives

Evaluate QOL, depression and anxiety among PLLD.

Research methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of 250 consecutive PLLD who underwent psychological pre-donation evaluation between 2015 and 2019. All the recipients were children. The Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), Beck depression inventory (BDI), and 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) scores were used to evaluate anxiety, depression, and QOL, respectively.

Research results

A total of 250 PLLD were evaluated. Most of them were women (54.4%), and the mean age was 29.2 ± 7.2 years. A total of 120 (48.8%) PLLD were employed at the time of evaluation for donation; however, most had low income (57% earned < 2 times the minimum wage). Family members were the majority of the. A total of 110 patients (44%) did not finish the donation process. A total of 247 PLLD answered a questionnaire to evaluate depression (BDI), anxiety (BAI), and QOL (SF-36). Prevalence of depression was of 5.2% and anxiety 3.6%.

Research conclusions

The socio-demographic findings of this particular population indicated the complexity of the donation process in a setting of low resources. PLLD had a low prevalence of anxiety and depression. Pre-donation psychological evaluation plays a predictive role in post-donation emotional responses and mental health issues. The impact of such findings on the donation process and outcomes needs to be further investigated.

Research perspectives

Almost half of the evaluated potential donors did not complete the donation processes. Reasons for not completing the donation process should be further evaluated in other centers as well. To further study the impacts of donation among living liver donors, our group aims to evaluate the post-donation psychological outcome in these donors.