title: Adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation for acute liver failure in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the long-term outcome of recipients and donors of adult-to-adult living-donor liver transplantation (AALDLT) for acute liver failure (ALF).
  
  
  METHODS
  Between January 2005 and March 2010, 170 living donor liver transplantations were performed at West China Hospital of Sichuan University. All living liver donor was voluntary and provided informed consent. Twenty ALF patients underwent AALDLT for rapid deterioration of liver function. ALF was defined based on the criteria of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, including evidence of coagulation abnormality [international normalized ratio (INR) ≥ 1.5] and degree of mental alteration without pre-existing cirrhosis and with an illness of < 26 wk duration. We reviewed the clinical indications, operative procedure and prognosis of AALDTL performed on patients with ALF and corresponding living donors. The potential factors of recipient with ALF and corresponding donor outcome were respectively investigated using multivariate analysis. Survival rates after operation were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was undertaken to identify the threshold of potential risk factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The causes of ALF were hepatitis B (n = 18), drug-induced (n = 1) and indeterminate (n = 1). The score of the model for end-stage liver disease was 37.1 ± 8.6, and the waiting duration of recipients was 5 ± 4 d. The graft types included right lobe (n = 17) and dual graft (n = 3). The mean graft weight was 623.3 ± 111.3 g, which corresponded to graft-to-recipient weight ratio of 0.95% ± 0.14%. The segment Vor VIII hepatic vein was reconstructed in 11 right-lobe grafts. The 1-year and 3-year recipient's survival and graft survival rates were 65% (13 of 20). Postoperative results of total bilirubin, INR and creatinine showed obvious improvements in the survived patients. However, the creatinine level of the deaths was increased postoperatively and became more aggravated compared with the level of the survived recipients. Multivariate analysis showed that waiting duration was independently correlated with increased mortality (P = 0.014). Furthermore, ROC curve revealed the cut-off value of waiting time was 5 d (P = 0.011, area under the curve = 0.791) for determining the mortality. The short-term creatinine level with different recipient's waiting duration was described. The recipients with waiting duration ≥ 5 d showed the worse renal function and higher mortality than those with waiting duration < 5 d (66.7% vs 9.1%, P = 0.017). In addition, all donors had no residual morbidity. Furthermore, univariate analysis did not show that short assessment time induced the high morbidity (P = 0.573).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Timely AALDLT for patients with ALF greatly improves the recipient survival. However, further systemic review is needed to investigate the optimal treatment strategy for ALF.
authors: Department of Liver and Vascular Surgery and Liver Transplantation Center of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China.
authors: Ding
authors: D
authors: Yuan
authors: Fei
authors: F
authors: Liu
authors: Yong-Gang
authors: YG
authors: Wei
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Li
authors: Lv-Nan
authors: LN
authors: Yan
authors: Tian-Fu
authors: TF
authors: Wen
authors: Ji-Chun
authors: JC
authors: Zhao
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Zeng
authors: Ke-Fei
authors: KF
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D019934:International Normalized Ratio; D017114:Liver Failure, Acute / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011184:Postoperative Period; D012372:ROC Curve; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Acute liver failure; Adult-to-adult liver donor liver transplantation; Donor; Recipient; Risk factors