[Quality of life after kidney transplantation]

316 kidney graft recipients responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire concerned general, physical and mental life quality as well as sexual capacity, the attitude towards graft and donor and immunosuppressive side effects. The questionnaire had a rating scale from 0 to 4. The ratings were correlated with clinical data (creatinine, hemoglobins levels, duration after transplantation) by simple bivariate correlation coefficient (r) was estimated. Statistical significance (P < 0.05) was defined as r > 0.11 for n = 316. A general improvement of life quality after renal transplantation was noted by 87.5% of patients. This statement did not correlated to time after transplantation, serum creatinine levels or hemoglobin levels. 40.8% of patients evaluated their physical conditions as good, these data again did not correlate to hemoglobin levels or kidney function (expressed as serum creatinine). 73.1% regarded their mental condition as excellent and only 4% as poor. Again, mental condition did not correlate to hemoglobin levels or renal function. Sexual function was assessed to be good or excellent by 48% of patients. In contrast to these positive results, a minority of 14.5% of patients participated in sporting activities on a regular full basis and only 37.5% of all patients believed them selves to be capable of performing a full time job. Only 12.9% suffered from drug-related side effects. Transplantation itself posed no emotional problem for the recipients. Only 2.2% felt unpleasant about carrying a foreign organ and only 17.4% reflected on their donor.