• Umberto Maggi, Luciano De Carlis, Daniel Yiu, Michele Colledan, Enrico Regalia, Giorgio Rossi, Marco Angrisani, Dario Consonni, Gianluca Fornoni, Giuseppe Piccolo, and T Maria DeFeo.
• General Surgery and Liver Transplantation Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
• Am. J. Transplant. 2020 Jul 1; 20 (7): 1840-1848.

AbstractIn January 2020, Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in a global pandemic, creating uncertainty toward the management of liver transplantation (LT) programs. Lombardy has been the most affected region in Italy: the current mortality rate of COVID-19 patients is 18.3% (10 022 deaths; April 10th) with hospitals in Lombardy having to expand the total number of ICU beds from 724 to 1381 to accommodate infected patients. There has been a drastic decrease in liver donors. From February 23rd until April 10th, 17 LTs were performed in Lombardy. Mean donor age was 49 years (range 18-74) whereas mean recipient age was 55 (13-69); mean MELD score was 12 (6-24). All donors underwent screening for SARS-CoV-2 prior to LT. Two patients tested positive after LT, and one patient died for COVID on POD 30. Sixteen patients are alive after an average of 30 days post-LT (range 3-46). 10 patients have been discharged. This study has found no specific reason concerning the safety of recipients, to stop LT programs. Several key lessons from our experience are reported. However, due to the complex circumstances which surround the viral outbreak, the cessation or a reduction in LT activity is a pragmatic requirement.© 2020 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

38 keywords...

hide…