Introduction and Objectives
SF-36 Health Survey was designed to assess the health status in general. This study compared the quality of life (QOL) in four groups of kidney donors – related versus non-related live kidney donors and younger versus older donors. We defined the border age of 65 (retirement age in Romania) in order to compare the two age donor groups.
Material and Methods
From June 1997 until May 2009, 1000 kidney transplants (799 living and 201 cadaver, 949 adults and 51 pediatric) have been performed in our center, with an average of 83 /year (116 in 2007). In all cases, general preoperative evaluation, immunological and vascular anatomy study was performed. Standard minimal lombotomy nephrectomy technique was preferred. The SF36 evaluation was performed before surgery, one month and six months after surgery. One group of 65 young donors (mean age 43) was compared with a group of 40 older donors (mean age 67) and a group of 53 related donors were compared with a group of 53 unrelated donors using the QOL questionnaire.
Results
Eight scales of SF-36 health survey were scored in all four groups: physical functioning (PF), role physical functioning (RP), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role emotional functioning (RE), and mental health (MH). Baseline QOL was better in younger versus older group. Summarizing the results, PF, RP, VT and GH were deteriorated after one month in older group (p < 0.001–0.003) and recovered close to baseline after six months. Bodily pain was worst in younger group one month and six months after surgery, while all the other scales recovered close to baseline. PF, RE and MH were deteriorated significantly in non related versus related donors after one month while BP,VT and SF follow the same returning in both groups. Six months after surgery non significant differences were detected.
Conclusions
QOL in non-related versus related donors returned at a baseline but following a slowly curve in the first group. Bodily pain scale in young donors recovered less effective than older donors while QOL in general return close to a baseline in older patients after six month following a slowly curve than younger donors. Considering that surgical results and graft function are comparable in all four groups, further expansion of borderline older donor pool is accepted.
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Copyright
© 2009 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
