Heart transplantation as a radical method of restoring the quality of life in recipients with end-stage heart failure

Aim: the aim of the study was a comparative assessment of the quality of life of recipients with donor heart at the stages before and after heart transplantation.

Materials and methods: the study included 150 patients who underwent orthotopic heart transplantation at the «Academician V.I. Shumakov National Medical Research Center of Transplantology and Artificial Organs», Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation from January 2009 to March 2018.

Results. Analysis of the research results indicates extremely low rates of both physical activity and overall health assessment at the pre-transplantation stage. During the first month after heart transplantation, the role of functioning due to physical condition (p = 0.02), general health (p = 0.001), mental health (p = 0.01) and vital activity (p = 0.01) significantly increase. Tolerance to physical activity increases by 201.26% during the first month after the heart transplantation (p = 0.02). The most complete indicators of quality of life are restored after one year of operation: physical functioning (p = 0.00007), role-based functioning due to physical condition (p = 0.00006), pain threshold (p = 0.04), general health (p = 0.00007), mental health (p = 0.0001), role functioning due to the emotional state (p = 0.01), social functioning (p = 0.0001), vital activity (p = 0.000032). High rates of quality of life are maintained for periods longer than 5 years after transplantation. The best indicators of quality of life in recipients of transplanted heart are observed a year after surgery and manifest a significant increase in all indicators. A comparative analysis of the results obtained in the preoperative period and a year after the operation of orthotopic heart transplantation indicates a significant improvement in the quality of life of patients.

Conclusion. The results of the study showed that during the year after heart transplantation in patients with terminal heart failure, there was a significant improvement in all indicators characterizing the quality of life. High levels of physical, mental and social activity achieved by the first year are maintained for at least 5 years, which indicates the high efficiency of orthotopic heart transplantation as a radical method of treating severe heart failure.

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