Annals of surgery
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Comparative Study
Health-related quality of life after different types of solid organ transplantation.
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. ⋯ Different types of transplant patients have a different health-related QOL before transplantation. Performance improved after transplantation for all four types of transplants, but the trajectories were not the same. Subjective QOL measured by the SF-36 and the PAIS also improved after transplantation. Path analysis shows the important predictors of health-related QOL. These data provide clearly defined and widely useful QOL outcome benchmarks for different types of solid organ transplants.
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To determine which patient factors affect the degree of catabolism after severe burn. ⋯ Heavier, more muscular subjects, and subjects whose definitive surgical treatment is delayed are at the greatest risk for excess catabolism after burn. Sepsis and excessive hypermetabolism are also associated with protein catabolism.