title: Liver transplantation at the Cuban Center for Medical and Surgical Research.
abstract: 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%.
authors.affiliation: Medical-Surgical Research Center, Havana, Cuba. lgonzalez@cimeq.sld.cu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abdo
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Samada
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Castillo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ysla
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cepero
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Castellanos
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilford
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Díaz
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Collera
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Benítez
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: F D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Avalo
mesh_terms: 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