Warts in a Cohort of Danish Kidney Transplanted Patients: Impact on Quality of Life.

There are no published clinical studies evaluating the im-pact of warts on quality of life after transplantation. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of self-reported skin warts and skin cancer and their impact on quality of life in kidney transplanted patients, as measu-red with the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). Of 740 patients with a functioning renal allograft and were free of dialysis who were surveyed, 568 returned the questionnaires. Patients were asked about general health issues, with a focus on transplantation history, cutaneous warts and whether they had ever had cutaneous cancer. A total of 285 (52%) patients replied that they had warts, and these increased with time since last transplantation, with ap-value <0.0001. A total of 101 patients (18%) re-ported that they had ever had skin cancer. The median DLQI was 0 for patients not having warts, 1 for patients with warts, and 2 for patients having warts and skin can-cer. In conclusion, renal transplant recipients experience increasing numbers of warts and skin cancer over time, and having skin cancer impairs patients' quality of life to a greater degree than warts. Key words: transplantation; warts; skin cancer; DLQI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]