An appraisal of technical variant grafts compared to whole liver grafts in pediatric liver transplant recipients: Multicenter analysis from the SPLIT registry
10/2022
Journal Article
Authors:
McElroy, L. M.;
Martin, A. E.;
Feldman, A. G.;
Ng, V. L.;
Kato, T.;
Reichman, T.;
Valentino, P. L.;
Anand, R.;
Anderson, S. G.;
Sudan, D. L.;
Society of Pediatric Liver Transplantation Research, Committee
Volume:
27
Pagination:
e14415
Issue:
1
Journal:
Pediatr Transplant
PMID:
36303260
URL:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36303260
Keywords:
Child Humans Adolescent *Liver Transplantation Retrospective Studies Prospective Studies Graft Survival Registries *Cardiovascular Diseases/etiology Liver Treatment Outcome
biliary complication hepatic artery thrombosis living donor liver transplantation partial liver graft patient survival pediatric liver transplantation registry technical variant graft
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Shortages of liver allografts for children awaiting transplantation have led to high LT waitlist mortality. Prior studies have shown that usage of TVG can reduce waiting time and waitlist mortality, but their use is not universal. We sought to compare patient and graft survival between WLG and TVG and to identify potential associated risk factors in a contemporary pediatric LT cohort. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of patient survival, graft survival, and biliary and vascular complications for LT recipients <18 years old entered into the Society of Pediatric Liver Transplantation prospective multicenter database. RESULTS: Of 1839 LT recipients, 1029 received a WLG and 810 received a TVG from either a LD or a DD. There was no difference in patient survival or graft survival by graft type. Three-year patient survival and graft survival were 96%, 93%, and 96%, and 95%, 89%, and 92% for TVG-LD, TVG-DD, and WLG, respectively. Biliary complications were more frequent in TVG. Hepatic artery thrombosis was more frequent in WLG. Multivariate analysis revealed primary diagnosis was the only significant predictor of patient survival. Predictors for graft survival included time-dependent development of biliary and vascular complications. CONCLUSIONS: There were no significant differences in patient and graft survival based on graft types in this North American multi-center pediatric cohort. Widespread routine use of TVG should be strongly encouraged to decrease mortality on the waitlist for pediatric LT candidates.
