Physical Work Capacity in Organ Transplantation

This publication brings together the work of leading international experts involved in the study of physical rehabilitation after transplant operations. The main sections of this book are concerned with cardiac transplantation. Subjects include cardiovascular adaptation to exercise after a heart transplantation, dysfunction of the left ventricle of transplanted hearts, and the neuroendocrine responses to exercise by heart transplant recipients. The modalities and results of rehabilitation after cardiac transplantation are also discussed, as well as the physical training required to recover a normal degree of fitness after such an operation. The book is not, however, limited to heart transplantation. It also covers other organ transplants and studies the factors that influence the exercise capacity in hemodialysis and renal transplant patients, the metabolic responses to exercise of liver transplant recipients and, finally, the osteoarticular and muscular complications that may arise after organ transplantation and, in this context, the role of immunosuppressive therapy. Physicians, surgeons, immunologists and physiologists will find the answers to many of their most frequently asked questions concerning this important field within these pages.