Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society
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For patients with end-stage liver disease, commonly used indices of nutritional status (ie, body weight and body mass index) are often inflated because of fluid overload (ie, ascites and peripheral edema), and this results in an underdiagnosis of malnutrition. Because muscle is the largest protein reservoir in the body, an estimate of the muscle mass may be a more reliable and valid estimate of nutritional status. Therefore, we used pretransplant computed tomography data for 338 liver transplantation (LT) candidates to identify muscle and fat mass on the basis of a specific abdominal transverse section commonly used in body composition analyses, and we investigated the contribution of this measure to specific post-LT outcomes. ⋯ For women, muscle mass predicted ICU stay, total LOS, and days of intubation, but the effect was modest. Muscle mass did not predict survival or disposition for women. In conclusion, because pretransplant muscle mass is associated with many important postoperative outcomes, we discuss these findings in the context of possible pretransplant interventions for either improving or sustaining muscle mass before surgery.
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Investigations have demonstrated conflicting results regarding the influence of the red blood cell (RBC) storage duration on outcomes. We evaluated whether graft failure or mortality after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) increased when recipients were transfused with older RBCs. This study included 637 patients who underwent OLT between January 2001 and June 2011. ⋯ Kaplan-Meier estimates of graft survival/mortality as a function of the posttransplant time were significantly different: the older group experienced the outcome sooner than the younger group [P = 0.02 (log-rank test)]. After covariate adjustments, the risk of graft failure/mortality was significantly different at any given time after transplantation between patients receiving intraoperative transfusions of older RBC units and patients receiving intraoperative transfusions of younger RBC units (hazard ratio = 1.65, 95% confidence interval = 1.18-2.31). In conclusion, patients who received intraoperative transfusions of RBCs with longer storage times had an increased risk of adverse outcomes.
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Liver transplantation (LT) is one of the highest risk noncardiac surgeries. We reviewed the incidence, etiologies, and outcomes of intraoperative cardiac arrest (ICA) during LT. Adult cadaveric LT recipients from January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2009 were reviewed. ⋯ In conclusion, the incidence of ICA in adult cadaveric LT was 5.5% with an intraoperative mortality rate of 29.4%. ICA most frequently occurred within 5 minutes after reperfusion and resulted mainly from PRS and PTE. A higher MELD score was identified as a risk factor.