title: Hepatic retransplant: what have we learned?
abstract: Hepatic retransplant accounts for 5% to 15% of liver transplants in most series and is associated with significantly increased hospital costs and inferior patient survival when compared with primary liver transplant. Early retransplants are usually due to primary graft nonfunction or vascular thrombosis, whereas later retransplants are most commonly necessitated by chronic rejection or recurrent primary liver disease. Hepatic retransplant remains the sole option for survival in many patients facing allograft failure after liver transplant. With improved techniques to match retransplant candidates with appropriate donor grafts, it is hoped that the outcomes of retransplant will continue to improve in future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Kitchens
authors.affiliation: Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.affiliation: Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Electronic address: jmarkmann@partners.org.
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Markmann
mesh_terms: D000075202:Contraindications; D006084:Graft Rejection; D006085:Graft Survival; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D008954:Models, Biological; D018579:Patient Selection; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence; D012086:Reoperation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Hepatitis C virus; Liver transplant; MELD scores; Retransplant; Risk prediction models