Quality of life after organ transplantation in type 1 diabetics with end-stage renal disease

Quality of life (QOL) should be an important consideration while choosing therapeutic options for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) including dialysis, cadaver (CKT) or living kidney transplant (LKT) or simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant. Methods: QOL was assessed in four groups of patients with history of type 1 DM and ESRD: recipients of SPK (n = 43), CKT (n = 43), LKT (n = 11) and wait listed (WL) patients (n = 23). Diabetes Quality of Life (DQOL), Short Form-36 (SF-36) and Quality of Well-Being (QWB) questionnaires were utilized. A subset of SPK (n = 19) and CKT (n = 12) recipients underwent longitudinal QOL evaluation. Results: On DQOL questionnaire, SPK group had better satisfaction subscore compared with CKT (1.8 +/- 0.5 vs. 2.2 +/- 0.6, p < 0.01) LKT (1.8 +/- 0.5 vs. 2.4 +/- 0.7, p < 0.05) and WL (1.8 +/- 0.5 vs. 2.6 +/- 0.6, p < 0.001) groups and better impact subscore compared with CKT (1.7 +/- 0.6 vs. 2.1 +/- 0.6, p < 0.05) and WL (1.7 +/- 0.6 vs. 2.3 +/- 0.6, p < 0.01) groups. There were no significant differences on physical/mental composite scores of SF-36. QWB score was better in SPK group vs. WL group (0.62 +/- 0.11 vs. 0.55 +/- 0.04, p < 0.05). Longitudinal decline in satisfaction (2.3 +/- 0.5 vs. 2.6 +/- 0.9, p = 0.058) and impact (2.0 +/- 0.5 vs. 2.2 +/- 0.5, p = 0.019) subscores of DQOL were noted in CKT group. There were no significant changes in the composite scores of SF-36 in both groups. QWB scores declined in the CKT group (0.67 +/- 0.10 vs. 0.61 +/- 0.05, p = 0.01). Conclusion: QOL was better in type 1 diabetics with ESRD following transplantation when compared with remaining on WL. SPK transplantation had significant positive effect on diabetes-related QOL which was sustained longitudinally but it was difficult to show an overall improvement in general QOL.