Longitudinal quality of life in liver transplant recipients.

More than 75,000 deceased donor liver transplants have been performed in the United States since 1984, thus giving many people another chance at life. Liver transplantation is often scrutinized because of its high cost and limited resources (i.e., organs). Measuring recipient's quality of life posttransplant is one outcome to determine whether liver transplantation is making a difference. Limited information is available from a longitudinal perspective that studies the same recipient over time. The purpose of this study was to describe liver transplant recipients' quality of life pretransplant and 1 and 2 years posttransplant. Patients completed the Quality of Life form at initial evaluation for liver transplant at 1 and 2 years posttransplant. Data from 139 recipients were extracted from a database maintained by a large transplant center in the southwest United States. Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed a statistically significant difference in quality of life at 1 and 2 years posttransplant as compared with quality-of-life scores pretransplant. The major finding was a statistically significant difference in quality of life between men and women, with men reporting higher overall quality-of-life scores. Liver transplantation does make a difference in improving quality of life. Further investigation is suggested to explore the difference of quality of life between genders.