Assessment of Causes of Early Death After Twenty Years of Liver Transplantation

Abstract Background Postoperative poor graft function is a serious complication that can lead to graft loss requiring retransplantation or even death. The postoperative complications of primary nonfunction (PNF), early graft dysfunction (EGD), bleeding due to coagulopathy, and hepatic artery thrombo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Transplantation proceedings Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 1116 - 1118
Main Authors:	Azevedo, L.D.L.S, Stucchi, R.S.B, Ataíde, E.C.d, Boin, I.F.D.F
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Elsevier Inc 01-04-2013
Subjects:	Cause of Death Graft Rejection - mortality Hemorrhage - mortality Hepatic Artery - pathology Humans Liver Transplantation Surgery Thrombosis - mortality
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Summary:	Abstract Background Postoperative poor graft function is a serious complication that can lead to graft loss requiring retransplantation or even death. The postoperative complications of primary nonfunction (PNF), early graft dysfunction (EGD), bleeding due to coagulopathy, and hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) can lead to graft loss requiring retransplantation or even death. We determined the causes of death after liver transplantation. Methods This was an observational descriptive study on adult liver transplant recipients from September 1991 to December 2011. The cutoff for the definition of death was 30 days after surgery. We included patients older than 18 years of age who underwent liver grafts using the piggyback technique, excluding those who had retransplantations or liver-kidney transplantations. Results We analyzed 561 liver transplantations through chart review. After application of exclusion criteria we had 81 patients for analysis. Overall mortality was classified into 3 main causes: PNF (34/81; 42%), EGD (10/81; 12%), and abdominal bleeding due to coagulopathy (9/81; 11%). Conclusion Despite advances, mortality in the first 30 days after surgery is still high, mainly related to the occurrence of PNF and EGD, whose causality was associated with red blood cell transfusion (>5 U).
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0041-1345 1873-2623
DOI:	10.1016/j.transproceed.2013.02.015