Effect of transplant education on nurses' attitudes toward organ donation and plans to work with transplant patients.

Context: Despite the increase in rates of solid organ transplantation in the past 2 decades, nurses are inconsistently educated regarding issues of organ donation and posttransplant care.

Objective: To characterize the attitudes of registered nurses before and after a graduate-level elective on issues in transplantation.

Design: Pre-experimental, pretest and posttest interventional study.

Impact of donor, technical, and recipient risk factors on survival and quality of life after liver transplantation.

Hypothesis: Donor, technical, and recipient risk factors cumulatively impact survival and health-related quality of life after liver transplantation.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: Tertiary care center.

Is there racial disparity in outcomes after solid organ transplantation?

Background: We sought to determine if disparities in survival and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) occurred after solid organ transplantation at our institution.

Methods: Data were extracted from a database including information regarding transplants that took place from 1990 to 2002. The HRQOL was assessed in patients by using the Karnofsky functional performance (FP) index and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire.

Effects of diabetes and cadaveric organs on functional performance and health-related quality of life after kidney transplantation.

Background: The current study was undertaken to identify factors specific to kidney transplantation that are associated with posttransplant functional performance (FP) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods: Karnofsky FP status was assessed longitudinally in 86 adult kidney transplant recipients. Patients reported HRQOL using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey and the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS).

Survival and quality of life after organ transplantation in veterans and nonveterans.

Background: Some previous studies suggested that transplantation performed in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients was associated with a higher rate of complications and poorer outcomes. We examined more than a decade of experience with solid organ transplantation at a single center and compared VA patients with nonveteran patients to assess long-term patient and graft survival and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods: Demographic, clinical, and survival data were extracted from a database that included all transplants from January 1990 through December 2002 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (non-VA) and the Nashville VA Medical Center (VA).

Health-related quality of life before and after solid organ transplantation. Measurement consideration, reported outcomes, and future directions.

The initial focus in organ transplantation clinical research was demonstrating acceptable technical and survival outcomes. Both patient and graft survival have reached well-documented, laudable levels, and solid organ (liver, heart, kidney, lung) transplantation procedures are now relatively common. As with any complex medical procedure that entails relatively high risk, financial costs, and life-long follow-up care, reliable and valid assessments of the "quality" of the extended life years are of interest to patients, their families, policy makers, and payers.

Effects of hepatitis C virus infection and its recurrence after liver transplantation on functional performance and health-related quality of life.

Our aim was to examine the effects of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, a leading cause of end-stage liver disease, and its recurrence after liver transplantation on functional performance and health-related quality of life. Functional performance, liver function, and HCV recurrence were assessed longitudinally in 75 adult transplant recipients (28 with HCV). Quality of life was reported once after transplantation.

Health-related quality of life after different types of solid organ transplantation.

Objective: To describe functional health and health-related quality of life (QOL) before and after transplantation; to compare and contrast outcomes among liver, heart, lung, and kidney transplant patients, and compare these outcomes with selected norms; and to explore whether physiologic performance, demographics, and other clinical variables are predictors of posttransplantation overall subjective QOL.

Summary Background Data: There is increasing demand for outcomes analysis, including health-related QOL, after medical and surgical interventions. Because of the high cost, interest in transplantation outcomes is particularly intense.

Experience with neoral versus sandimmune in primary liver transplant recipients.

We compared results using Neoral versus Sandimmune, each in combination with steroid and azathioprine immunosuppression, in primary liver transplantation recipients. There were 15 patients in each group with similar demographic distributions. Intravenous cyclosporine was stopped at 4.