Quality of life of patients after orthotopic liver transplantation performed for alcoholic cirrhosis
Abstract
Excessive and regular alcohol consumption affects negatively the whole organism and the organ that is damaged most often is liver. A whole range of diseases, from the lighter forms such as steatosis to a serious, life-shortening illness - the liver cirrhosis, can be caused by alcohol consumption.
Therapeutic procedures for people with alcoholic liver damages include above all change of lifestyle, abstinence from alcohol consumption and nutritional and pharmacological therapy. Liver transplant surgery is required in serious cases.
The main aim of this communication is to find out how the liver transplant influences quality of patients' everyday lives improves after liver transplant. We have divided this aim in several questions: do the patients' attitudes towards use of alcohol change in relation to the subsequent outpatient treatments? Is it possible to collect objective markers related to alcohol usage in patients after liver transplant? Are there any interconnections between the patients' subjective attitude towards alcohol, quality of their lives and objective evidence of their alcohol use?Data collection method.
To this end a structured questionnaire was used based on standardised instruments WHOQOL-BREF and AUDIT. The research sample.
Consisted of 96 patients after liver transplant, who were treated in the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague. Data analysis method.
The collected data was processed by the method of descriptive statistics and the results presented in individual tables and charts. Conclusion and results.
The results indicate that patients after liver transplant perceive the quality of their lives relatively without regard to their age and sex. The overall number of patients evaluate their quality of life as average, no significant differences between quality of life in men and women have been found.
Answers from the AUDIT questionnaire demonstrate that absolute majority of patients experience no problems in relation to alcohol use, as proved also by their laboratory values. The patients who underwent liver transplant can return to their regular pre-transplant lifestyle without serious complications.
These people can even get back to their original professions, especially if they are middle-aged and their jobs do not require manually demanding activities.