title: Should donation after cardiac death liver grafts be used for retransplantation?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Donation after cardiac death (DCD) donors provide an important source of livers that has been used to expand the donor pool. As a consequence of increased numbers of OLT, allograft failure due to early and late complications and disease recurrence are more commonly encountered. The only life saving treatment for patients with liver allograft failure is liver re-transplantation (LR). The use of DCD liver grafts for LR is controversial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between February 1998 and June 2008, 10 patients underwent LR with DCD allografts. Five (50%) patients had no post operative complications. The 30 day, 1 year, and 3 year patient survival are 80, 60, and 60%, respectively. When DCD grafts are used for sick patients with high MELD scores for LR, the patient and graft survivals are prohibitively low.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We do not recommend utilization of DCD liver grafts for LR if a candidate recipient has moderate to high MELD score.
authors.affiliation: Department of Transplantation. Mayo Clinic Florida, Jacksonville, Florida 32224, USA.
authors.forename: Dana K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Darrin L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Willingham
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sibulesky
authors.forename: Ilynn G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Bulatao
authors.forename: Justin H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: C Burcin
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Taner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D017211:Treatment Failure; D016896:Treatment Outcome