Quality of life of Egyptian donors after living-related liver transplantation.
OBJECTIVE
Quality of life after liver donation must remain a primary outcome measure when we consider the utility of living donor liver transplants. In making clinical decisions on the use of transplantation for chronic liver diseases, consideration should be given to the key factors likely to affect subsequent health related quality of life. It would be beneficial for donors, if factors predicting good quality of life are identified. The aim of this study was to assess the health related quality of life changes experienced by donors following living related liver transplantation using the Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire.


METHODS
Between August 2001 and December 2006, 125 adults received liver grafts from living donors at Dar Al-Fouad Hospital, Cairo, Egypt. The SF-36v2 questionnaire was applied to 30 donors after at least 6 months following donation and maximally 4 years after donation (mean±STD:3.28±1.56 years). Furthermore, 30 healthy volunteers were taken as a control group.


RESULTS
None of the donors required re-surgery and no deaths were reported. Only 4 (13.3%) donors experienced minor complications, which did not affect their quality of life and had no long term effects. No significant difference was found between donors and control group when means of the Physical and Mental Component Summary were compared. The physical functioning domain was the only domain of health which showed a statistically significant difference between both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Health related quality of life of donors was not compromised after full recovery. All donors had good recovery and returned to regular activities within 2-4 months post donation.
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Magdy
M
El-Serafy
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Abdel-Meguid
AM
Kassem
Intensive Care Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Adel
A
Alansary
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Ashraf
A
Omar
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Ayman
A
Yosry
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Gamal
G
Esmat
Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Refaat
R
Kamel
Department of Hepatology, Ahmad Maher Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
Samy
S
Refaat
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Wahid
W
Doss
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: naglaazayed@yahoo.com.
Naglaa
N
Zayed
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Tamer
T
El-Mallahy
Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Serag
S
Zakaria
Living related liver transplantation; Quality of life; SF-36v2