title: Living Donor Liver Transplantation in Patients 70 Years or Older.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous published studies have shown that age is not a contraindication for deceased donor liver transplantation. The data about elderly recipient after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is unsatisfactory. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of the LDLT with recipients aged 70 years or older.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2005 and 2013, 469 patients underwent LDLTs. The clinical characteristics, preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative data, graft, and patients' survival of these patients were retrospectively analyzed. All recipients who were 70 years or older at the time of liver transplantation were indentified. The results were compared to the results of the patients younger than 70 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 12 patients (2%) 70 years or older. All patients received the right lobe of their donor in a standard technique. One patient died postoperatively because of pulmonary infection, and one patient died 6 months after the operation because of graft failure after cardiac infarction. The comorbidity score of these two patients were significantly higher compared to the other ten patients without any complications (8.5 vs. 4.6, P = 0.01). The 1-year and 3-year patient and graft survival was 84%. There were no significant differences in complications, hospital stay, perioperative mortality, or median survival compared to the younger group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the number of the patients is small, our study emphasizes that LDLT of patients 70 years or older can be performed safely in patients without major comorbidities. Elderly patients with increased risk for postoperative complications should be excluded from LDLT.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of General and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital of the Istanbul Science University, Istanbul, Turkey. 2 Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Arzu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oezcelik
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dayangac
authors.forename: Necdet
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Guler
authors.forename: Onur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yaprak
authors.forename: Yalcin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Erdogan
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akyildiz
authors.forename: Zeynep
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sevdik
authors.forename: Yildiray
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuzer
authors.forename: Yaman
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tokat
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D058625:End Stage Liver Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007902:Length of Stay; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome