http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1399-0012.2010.01337.x/abstractComparison between psychosocial long-term outcomes of recipients and donors after adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation
Shun’ichi Noma1, Akiko Hayashi2, Minako Uehara1, Shinji Uemoto3, Toshiya Murai1
DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-0012.2010.01337.x
Clinical Transplantation
Volume 25, Issue 5, pages 714–720, September/October 2011
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine psychosocial states of recipients and donors several years after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and to find out the pre-transplant predictors of desirable post-transplant psychosocial states. The recipients and donors of adult-to-adult LDLT at Kyoto University Hospital, Japan, from November 2001 through July 2003 were interviewed and examined by means of questionnaires about anxiety, depression, and quality of life (QOL), and the participants were evaluated by the same test batteries sent by mail three to five yr after LDLT. Twenty-seven pairs of recipients and donors, 13 recipients, and three donors participated in this study. The recipients and the donors had a decline in social QOL. The main predictor of psychosocial states of the recipients was the length of wait for LDLT, and the predictors of the donors were family or support system availability and recipients’ depressive states at LDLT. The donors who were spouses of the recipients had better QOL than other donors. It might be better to perform LDLT as soon as possible once LDLT has been judged to be necessary, and the relative who is on close terms with the recipient should be selected as donor.