Morbidity and mortality in liver retransplantation.
BACKGROUND
The incidence of orthotopic liver retransplantation (re-OLT) ranges from 6% to 11%. The most frequent causes of early re-OLT are allograft failure, uncontrolled acute rejection, and vascular complications.


METHODS
A retrospective study of 512 orthotopic liver transplants (OLTs) in 482 patients over 15 years.


RESULTS
The incidence of re-OLT was 6.6%, with a higher percentage of men requiring re-OLT than first-time OLT (75.0% vs 63.0%, P < .05). The reasons for re-OLT were thrombosis 21.7%, aneurysm 6.5%, stenosis 3.2%, primary nonfunction (PNF) 21.7%, and chronic rejection or recurrence of the initial disease 40.4%. Complications included PNF (22.0%), acute renal failure (65.6%), postoperative infection (87.5%), and adult respiratory distress syndrome (9.4%; P < .05). No differences were seen in the incidence of septicemia or postoperative hemorrhage. The average survival was much lower in re-OLT (21.8 days) compared with OLT (194.5 days; P < .05). The mortality rates in re-OLT were 100% for primary biliary cirrhosis, 85.7% for HCV, 50% for alcoholic cirrhosis, and 20% for HBV. A direct association between the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score and the number of complications was present.


CONCLUSIONS
There was a greater requirement for re-OLT in men and those patients transplanted due to hepatitis B virus cirrhosis and fulminant hepatitis (P < .05). The re-OLT patients had no greater incidence of sepsis compared with the OLT patients, although they did have a greater incidence of primary graft dysfunction, acute renal failure, adult respiratory distress syndrome, and postoperative infection (P < .05). The MELD was a good parameter for predicting graft evolution. Re-OLT in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis and hepatitis C virus was associated with a high degree of mortality.
Alamo
J M
JM
Liver Transplantation Unit, Surgery Department, Virgen del Rocío Hospital, Seville, Spain. jmalamom@terra.es
Gómez
M A
MA
Pareja
F
F
Martínez
A
A
López
F
F
Romero
E
E
Barrera
L
L
Serrano
J
J
García
I
I
Bernardos
A
A
D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000401:mortality; D009017:Morbidity; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery; D012086:Reoperation / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies