Body image of patients with ESRD and following renal transplantation.

This article, the winner of the 1994 Nuffield award, in association with British Journal of Nursing, examines the need for all health care professionals to appreciate the social consequences and emotional aspects of living with a long-term illness. The treatment therapy for renal patients includes both dialysis (haemodialysis and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis) and transplantation. Although the patients in this study accepted the need for dialysis access, they had considerable difficulty adjusting to the disfiguring changes that occurred to the body.