Single Center Experience with Incidence, Impact and Predictors of Biliary Complications in Donation After Circulatory Death Liver Transplantation

Omar Bushara*, Jonathan Alhalel, Jes Sanders, Hooman Azad, Thomas Cerri, Salmaan Zafer, Kexin Guo, Lihui Zhao, Amna Daud, Daniel Borja-Cacho, Juan C. Caicedo-Ramirez

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Introduction: Utilizing allografts from donors after cardiac death (DCD) has improved organ availability, and DCD livers comprise a growing proportion of transplantations. However, it has been suggested that DCD transplantations have worse outcomes. Research Questions: We aimed to characterize outcomes in a large cohort of DCD transplantations, identify trends in outcomes over time, and identify factors associated with the development of biliary complications. Design: We conducted an observational retrospective cohort study of patients receiving DCD liver allografts within a large academic teaching hospital with a high transplantation volume. Consecutive patients who underwent Type III DCD liver transplantation from 2006–2016 were included in our cohort. Re-transplantations and multi-organ transplant recipients were excluded. Results: Ninety-six type III DCD transplantations occurred between 2006–2016. We report a 1one-year patient survival of 90.6% (87) and a 5five-year patient survival of 69.8% (67). Twenty-nine (30.2%) patients experienced any biliary complication in the first year following discharge, with 17 (17.7%) experiencing ischemic cholangiopathy. Five-year patient (P = 0.04) and graft (P = 0.005) survival improved over time. Post-operative biliary complications experienced during index admission and prior to discharge were found to be associated with the development of biliary complications (P = 0.005) and ischemic cholangiopathy (P = 0.01) following discharge. Conclusion: Our data suggested that outcomes using DCD allografts have improved, however biliary complications remain a significant issue in DCD transplantation. Patients who experienced post-operative biliary complications during index admission may require more frequent screening to allow the initiation of earlier treatment for biliary complications.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)252-260
Number of pages9
JournalProgress in Transplantation
Volume32
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2022

Keywords

  • biliary complications
  • clinical outcomes
  • descriptive comparative
  • donor after circulatory death
  • ischemic cholangiopathy
  • quantitative methods
  • rejection outcomes
  • research

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Transplantation

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