Post-Operative Discharge and Recovery Process
After you leave the hospital you will still be recovering. For the first four to six months, you will have some restrictions on your daily activities. During the recovery period, the transplant team will closely follow your progress. You will need to be monitored on a long term basis and you must agree to make yourself available for blood work, examinations, scans of your abdomen, and frequent endoscopic tests (see below).
The transplant team will see you on a regular basis post transplant. As time from your transplant goes by, follow up visits tend to be less frequent unless complications develop. In this case, your plan of care will be dependent on your medical condition.After transplant, the transplant team is committed to you and will follow you in the transplant clinic for life.
Patients who do well with their surgery may be eager to return to work. When you may return to work depends on your individual progress. Your transplant team will help you decide the best timing.
Outcomes and Complications of Intestinal Transplantation
Statistics from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) show that one year after transplantation 83 percent of intestinal transplant patients are still alive and 70 percent are still alive at three years. Approximately 80 percent of these transplant recipients become free from parenteral nutrition.
There are inherent risks in all surgeries, especially surgeries conducted under general anesthesia. Many complications are minor and get better on their own, but in some cases, the complications are serious enough to require another surgery or medical procedure. Immediately following the surgery, you will experience pain, but this will be carefully monitored and controlled as you recover.