Abstract
Introduction: For selected patients, lung transplantation (LT) prolongs survival and improves quality of life. However, it is also associated with complications with high morbidity.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of the complications associated to LT in quality of life and functional status of transplanted patients.
Methods: Analysis of the complications and its correlation with quality of life, physical limitation and anxiety/depression, evaluated, respectively, by applying the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36), the scale London Chest Activity of Daily Living (LCADL) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).
Results: 30 transplanted patients were included. The most frequent complications were: osteoporosis (46.7%), CMV infection (40%), renal dysfunction (33.3%) and dyslipidemia (33.3%). There was a negative correlation between complications number and quality of life in the areas of bodily pain (r=-0.36, p=0.04), vitality (r=-0.37, p=0.04), emotional role functioning (r =-0.37, p=0.04) and mental health (r=-0.39, p=0.03). No significant association was established with the remaining four domains of the SF-36. We found a positive correlation between complications and physical limitations in the field of self-care of LCADL (r=0.45, p=0.01). This association was not observed with other areas neither with the total score of LCADL. Anxiety and depression were not correlated with complications.
Conclusion: The complications associated to LT contribute to decreased quality of life and increased physical limitation of patients. However, the presence of low to moderate associations with only some fields of the SF-36 and LCADL, suggests that there are other factors influencing these variables.
- © 2014 ERS
