Recent Advances in TransplantationLiver transplantationLiver Transplantation: Recipients' Evaluation of Life From the Perspective of Living Donors

- Donors evaluated recipients' experience of life in terms of limitations, mixed relationships, emotional changes, and improvements.
- According to donors in addition to feeling supported by other people, recipients felt other people were frightened of being infected by ESLF and were insensitive.
- Fear was an important aspect of the recipients' experience according to donors.
- Other negative emotions included feeling like a loser, that one is a burden to others, and that one is going to leave others bereaved.
- There was also improvement in mood (such as being refreshed), and perspective on life including appreciating the seriousness of ESLF, holding onto life, and allocating time for oneself.

AimLiver transplantation affects not only recipients and living donors' lives, but also the nature and quality of their relationship. Moreover, the ways in which recipients of liver transplant experience life and views of living donors on how recipients experience life may differ. These differences may account for relational changes. It is also important to understand how recipients and their living donors' views differ if the aim is to devise psychoeducational programs for recipients and living donors. Therefore, the present study examined the recipients' experience of life after a diagnosis of end-stage liver failure (ESLF) and transplantation surgery from donors' perspective.MethodsThe sample consisted of 16 living donors who donated a part of their liver to a patient with ESLF. Thematic analysis was undertaken in parallel with interviews during which an interview guide was followed.FindingsDonors felt that recipients evaluated life after the diagnosis of ESLF and transplantation surgery in terms of limitations, mixed relationships, emotional changes, and improvement in life.ConclusionExperience of social limitations, negative emotions, and the feeling that one is supported by others could be interpreted in terms of existing psychological theory. Some ways of adjusting that have not been reported before within the context of ESLF extended the literature. These included others being frightened of being infected by ESLF and being insensitive, experience of positive emotions, and ways of improving. Overall, compared with findings of previous qualitative work among recipients, our findings suggest that donors' evaluation of recipients' lives converge with that of recipients.