Impact of cardiac transplantation on the spouse's life

The purpose of this research was to explore the effect of waiting for heart transplantation and the effect of the transplantation on the life, relationship, and reported stress of the patient's spouse. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. The impact of both the pretransplant (waiting) and posttransplant periods was measured by using the Perception of Heart Transplantation Questionnaire (PHTQ) and the Subjective Stress Scale (SSS). Thirty spouses of patients who had undergone cardiac transplantation completed the mailed questionnaires. Results indicated that spouses perceived the pretransplant period to have a greater overall influence on their lives and relationships (p less than 0.001) than did the posttransplant period. Their impression of the posttransplant period was significantly more positive than of the pretransplant period (p less than 0.001). However, no significant differences between pretransplant and posttransplant stress scores were found. These results demonstrate the great impact of the waiting period on the spouse's quality of life. Additional research is needed.