Long-term complications after liver transplantation.
BACKGROUND
Along with an increased number of cases of liver transplantation (LT), perioperative mortality has decreased and short-term survival has improved. However, long-term complications have not been fully elucidated today.


OBJECTIVE
Chronic complications were analyzed individually to find risk factors and to improve long-term outcomes after LT.


METHODS
There were 63 cases of LT from our outpatient clinic that were included in this study. Among them, 58 were performed using living donor LT and 5 were performed using deceased donor LT. Original diseases mainly consisted of hepatitis C virus (HCV; 45.9%) and hepatitis B virus (23.0%).


RESULTS
The median follow-up was 5.4 ± 3.3 years (range, 0.1∼17 years). Overall survival at 2, 3, 5, and 10 years was 89.3%, 83.4%, 81.3%, and 81.3%, respectively. Long-term complications mainly consisted of renal dysfunction (62.7%), dyslipidemia (29.4%), diabetes mellitus (21.6%), and arterial hypertension (21.6%). In univariate analysis, HCV (P = .03) and elapsed years after LT (P = .02) were identified as predictive factors for arterial hypertension and recipient age >50 (P = .03), and elapsed years after LT for renal dysfunction (P = .03), respectively. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, HCV (odds ratio [OR] 5.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05-34.06, P = .04) was identified as a predictive factor for arterial hypertension, and recipient age older than 50 years for renal dysfunction (OR 5.67, 95% CI 1.34-28.88, P = .02). The number of elapsed years after transplantation was also identified as a predictive factor for arterial hypertension/dyslipidemia/renal dysfunction (OR 13.88/14.15/4.10, 95% CI 1.91-298.26/2.18-290.78/1.09-18.03, P = .01/.003/.04). Fifty percent of the recipients developed renal dysfunction within 8 years after LT, and fluctuation of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) within 3 months after LT was successfully associated with an annual decrease of eGFR (r(2) value = 0.574, P < .0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Renal dysfunction is the most frequent chronic complication after LT. As chronic individual eGFR can be now accurately predicted with deterioration speed, recipient strata for renal protection strategies should be precisely targeted.
Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
K
K
Kuramitsu
Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan. Electronic address: fukumoto@med.kobe-u.ac.jp.
T
T
Fukumoto
Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
T
T
Iwasaki
Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
M
M
Tominaga
Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
I
I
Matsumoto
Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
T
T
Ajiki
Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
Y
Y
Ku
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008875:Middle Aged; D014019:Tissue Donors