title: Liver transplantation in patients with liver cirrhosis and active pneumonia: an observational study.
abstract: Patients with chronic liver disease are at high risk for severe infection because of increased bacterial translocation and immune suppression associated with liver dysfunction. Patients presenting with severe pneumonia and acute decompensation of cirrhosis are generally not considered for liver transplantation because it is unknown if these patients can recover from infection while under immunosuppression. We performed an observational study where patients with cirrhosis of the liver remained on the waiting list, although suffering from active pneumonia. Nine patients were included, but only six patients improved under goal-directed therapy and subsequently underwent liver transplantation. All six patients recovered quickly from infection; five patients recovered without sequelae and one patient died because of late complications. We propose that in patients with chronic liver disease and active pneumonia transplantation is a treatment option that should not hastily be abandoned.
authors: Department of General and Visceral Surgery, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany. agoralczyk@med.uni-goettingen.de
authors: Armin D
authors: AD
authors: Goralczyk
authors: Wijdan
authors: W
authors: Abu-Ajaj
authors: Tung Yu
authors: TY
authors: Tsui
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Bauer
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Lorf
authors: Giuliano
authors: G
authors: Ramadori
authors: Aiman
authors: A
authors: Obed
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014850:Waiting Lists