Liver transplantation at the Cuban Center for Medical and Surgical Research.
From July 4, 1999, when a liver transplantation program was started in Cuba, to October 2003, 66 procedures had been performed in 60 patients. The most frequent reason was cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C virus (29%), and alcoholic cirrhosis (22%). Two patients received simultaneous liver-kidney transplants. Half of the patients were men. Patient ages ranged from 12 to 62 years; the average surgical time was 6 hours; and cold ischemia time was 4 to 14 hours. The average blood consumption was 2033 mL; 2900 mL of plasma and 8 units of platelets were used in 7 cases. Immunosuppression was mainly cyclosporine (Neoral), mycophenolate mofetil or azathioprine, and prednisone. Acute cellular rejections were treated in almost all cases with 3 doses of methylprednisolone. The most frequent complications were biliary (24%), hepatic arterial thrombosis (12%), post-surgical bleeding (10%), acute cellular rejection (24%), and ductopenic rejection (2%). The overall 1-year survival rate was 73.7%.
González
L
L
Medical-Surgical Research Center, Havana, Cuba. lgonzalez@cimeq.sld.cu
Abdo
A
A
López
O
O
Samada
M
M
Ramos
L
L
Castillo
J
J
Fernández
A
A
Ysla
R
R
Hernández
J C
JC
Cepero
M
M
Castellanos
R
R
Wilford
M
M
Gómez
F
F
Díaz
J
J
Collera
S A
SA
Domínguez
J
J
Benítez
P P
PP
Rodríguez
H
H
Avalo
F D
FD
D003462:Cuba; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000379:methods; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000276:immunology / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies