Vocational rehabilitation following kidney transplantation

Successful kidney transplantation (KT) improves significantly the quality of life as compared with hemodialysis. Vocational rehabilitation and professional activity are the vital part of general rehabilitation and play an important role in determining the quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the degree of vocational rehabilitation of the patients following allogenic kidney transplantation. 114 patients were questionnaired. Evaluation of the data revealed that only 31.6% of the study group returned to work despite good quality of life and satisfactory graft function of more than 75% of the KT patients. Factors influencing re-employment included gender, age and education level. Most of the patients were re-employed within 6 months following KT. In 78.9% of the cases formal disability status was not changed after KT and remained discrepant with good general condition and graft function. Results of the study allow authors to conclude that unless vocational rehabilitation of the KT patients is not improved, the chances of return to full social life given by KT are mostly wasted.