[Liver transplantation. Nursing in hospital-based home care]

At home hospital treatment nursing by the "Hospital de Cruces" staff provides integrated treatment for liver transplant patients in their home environments, their own houses, with the assistance of full hospital care and resources. The number of patients attended to since the start of this program in February 1996 until November 2001 has reached 164 patients in 205 episodes. The continuity of at home nursing treatment in a liver transplant patient's home is an effective tool which shortens the duration of a patient's hospital stay and the period of a patient's integration into his/her habitual environment with its beneficial consequences in aspects so important as the quality of their lives.