Medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be transported from a donor site to another location. Preoperative nutritional assessment identifies at-risk patients who benefit from supplementation before surgery. The nutritional status before transplantation affects the prognosis after transplantation.
A patient’s nutritional status can be worsened rapidly in the immediate postoperative period due to perioperative malnutrition, surgical stress, immunosuppressive therapy, post-interventional complications, postoperative protein catabolism, and fasting periods. Nutrition plays an important role. It's important to eat enough calories and protein to help your body heal, fight infection, and provide the energy you need.
The long-term nutritional management after transplantation requires nutritional interventions to prevent obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, and osteoporosis, which are the adverse effects associated with the use of immunosuppressive drugs.
The drugs used to prevent rejection also suppress your immune system. You are more at risk of picking up a food-borne infection in the first 4 weeks after your transplant and may still be at risk for a time after. Keyways to decrease this risk are cooking foods well, using good food hygiene and avoiding high-risk foods. Safe food handling is the key.