Background: The liver is the second most transplanted organ worldwide. Despite the high survival rate after liver transplant (LT), malnutrition, sarcopenia and frailty are present in 47%, 80% and 59%, respectively, of patients 3 months after surgery. These three complications are associated with adverse clinical outcomes and decreased quality of life after LT. However, there are no data regarding malnutrition, sarcopenia, and frailty in the long term after LT. Purpose: The primary objective is to determine the prevalence of malnutrition, sarcopenia, and frailty starting from 1 year after LT. The secondary objectives aim to describe muscle function, quality of life and employment status in LT recipients. Methods: Cross-sectional observational study is conducted including 80 patients transplanted between 2019 and 2021. A single virtual meeting is performed with each patient during which nutritional risk (Canadian Nutrition Screening Tool), sarcopenia (SARC-F questionnaire), frailty (FRAIL questionnaire), muscle function (chair stand test), quality of life (SF36) and employment status are assessed. Results: To date, 57 (29 in 2019, 12 in 2020 and 16 in 2021) patients have completed the study (34 men and 23 women). The mean age is 58.9 ± 10.5 years and 10.5% of patients were at risk of malnutrition, 19.3% of patients were at risk of sarcopenia whereas 43.9% and 19.3% were prefrail and frail. The prevalence of the risk of malnutrition, sarcopenia, and frailty (prefrail and frail) remained unchanged until 3 years after LT. Muscle function was impaired after LT (15.8 ± 5.5 s vs. 12.6 s in healthy people). Regarding quality of life, the score of physical heath (62.6% ± 22.1) is slightly below normal and the scores remain unchanged until 3 years after LT. 68.4% of patients are unemployed of which 46.2% are in early retirement for a liver disease-related cause. Conclusion: Up to 3 years after LT, patients are still at risk of malnutrition, sarcopenia, and frailty. The physical component score of their quality-of-life score is below the score of the general population. The results of this project may help identify appropriate interventions in the long term after LT.
