ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the characteristics and risk factors of infection after liver transplantation from donor liver of donation after citizen's death. Methods Clinical data of 68 recipients after liver transplantation from donor liver of donation after citizen's death were analyzed retrospectively. The recipients were divided into infection group (33 cases) and non-infection group (35 cases) according to the presence of infection after operation. Major infection characteristics of the 68 recipients after liver transplantation were summarized. Univariate analysis was conducted on the possible risk factors of infection after liver transplantation, and multivariate analysis was further conducted on the risk factors with statistical significance, so as to find out the independent risk factors. In addition, accuracy of predicting infection after liver transplantation was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results Thirty-three recipients were infected after liver transplantation, accounting for 49% of the total recipients with bacterial infection and fungal infection mainly. These recipients mainly presented pulmonary infection and abdominal cavity infection. Univariate analysis results showed that a total of 8 factors contributed to infection after liver transplantation from donor liver of organ donation, including the donors' open injury, recipients' preoperative hemoglobin level, platelet count, Child-Pugh classification of liver function, model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score, intraoperative erythrocyte infusion, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) on day 1 after operation and postoperative stay time of intensive care unit (ICU) (all P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression results analysis showed that preoperative hemoglobin level <120 g/L and postoperative stay time of ICU >96 h were the independent risk factors of infection after liver transplantation from donor liver of organ donation (both P<0.05). Analysis results of ROC curves showed that preoperative hemoglobin level<114 g/L and postoperative stay time of ICU >102 h resulted in higher accuracy for predicting postoperative infection. Conclusions Infection after liver transplantation from donation after citizen's death presents high incidence, dominated by bacterial infection and fungal infection in lung and abdominal cavity. Low preoperative hemoglobin level and long postoperative stay time of ICU of recipients can increase the risk of infection after liver transplantation.