Improving long-term quality of life
Organ transplantation has an enormous impact on patients by improving their quality of life and life expectancy. Patients and grafts go through different ageing processes. For instance, some recipients have a donor organ that is much older than they are. Therefore, individual strategies are needed in terms of immunosuppressive drugs, nutrition, and lifestyle advice.
The chain of events in the transplantation process can lead to various multicausal injuries that may accelerate the ageing process of the donor organ. By providing more insight into the organ donation chain, the GIOT programme intends to:
- Improve the management of the donor and optimize the donor organ quality;
- Preserve the organ;
- Reduce early organ damage following implantation, e.g. caused by ischaemia-reperfusion injury;
- Reduce chronic graft dysfunction;
- Improve long-term quality of life.