Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena

Abstract

The liver cirrhosis is one of the most current diseases. Its evolution causes the onset of serious complications, which are often debilitating and require an appropriate cure: the liver transplant is today the best available therapy.
The thesis issue is to describe the relevance of an adeguate nursing care of a patient affected by cirrhosis in normal and severe conditions, in order to point out the nurse`s competence, his or her  autonomy and the importance of his or her role in taking care of the patient with efficiency.
The thesis is composed of an initial part, in which the liver cirrhosis and its medical and nursing treatment are described. Later, there is a chapter dedicated completely to the complications due to the cirrhosis and their different and scrupulous management. The last chapter is about the liver transplant, the patient being considered for the therapy with the relative diagnostic-therapeutic process, until follow-up controls. Also in this path, the nurse’s figure is fundamental, in fact he or she is present in all steps: preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative. The final draft talks about the clinical path that the patient follows. In the first phase, because of the characteristics of the disease, the patient is valuated and, if he satisfies the requirements, inserted in a waiting list. In this phase a lot of controls are performed, in order to prevent the progression of the disease and the episodes of clinical failure. Afterwards the preparation of the surgery and the intraoperative phase are explained. The last phase outlines the postoperative path, in order to prevent complications, handle the immunosuppressive therapy and allow the psychophysical patient recovery thanks to therapeutic and health education.