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Evidence summaries

Transplantation and Quality of Life

Transplantation appears to result in improvement of the quality of life in the majority of patients. Level of evidence: "B"

A systematic review 1 including 218 studies with a total of 14 750 subjects was abstracted in DARE. Of the studies, 30.3% were of kidney, 22.5% were of heart, 18.3% were of liver, 15.6% were of bone marrow, 8.7% were of pancreas/kidney, and 4.6% were of lung-heart transplantations. The majority of 76 prospective studies reported significant pre- to post-transplant improvements in physical functional quality of life, mental health/cognitive status, social functioning, and overall quality of life perceptions. The majority of 84 studies reported physical functional and global quality of life advantages for transplant recipients relative to similarly ill comparison groups.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (variability in results across studies).

    References

    • Dew MA, Switzer GE, Goycoolea JM, Allen AS, DiMartini A, Kormos RL, Griffith BP. Does transplantation produce quality of life benefits? A quantitative analysis of the literature. Transplantation 1997 Nov 15;64(9):1261-73. [PubMed] [DARE]

Primary/Secondary Keywords