ABSTRACT
Objective To study the classification, its incidence and some related factors of neurological complications after liver transplantation.Methods 166 cases of orthotopic liver transplantation were retrospectively studied. The classification and the incidence of the neurological complications were analyzed. In addition, the patients were divided into two groups, according to whether they suffered from neurological complications or not, to study the difference of related factors, which included gender, age, primary disease, type of operation procedure, operation time, non-hepatic time, ischemia time of donor liver, blood loss, blood infusion and immunosuppressive regimen.Results Neurological complications occurred in 28 cases (32 times), which included encephalopathy, seizure, stroke, infection of central nervous system, serious para-pyramidal syndrome and peripheral neuropathy. The total incidence was 16.9 %. Between the neurological complication group and non-neurological-complication group, no difference was found in gender, age, type of operation procedure, operation time, non-hepatic time, ischemia time of donor liver, blood loss, blood infusion and immunosuppressive regimen, but the neurological complications were closely related with primary diseases. The incidence of neurological complications was 30 % in acute liver failure, followed by post-hepatitis B liver cirrhosis (21 %), primary liver carcinoma (17.8 %), Wilson disease (16.7 %) and primary biliary liver cirrhosis (12.5 %). Interestingly as a sole complication disease, the incidence of encephalopathy in acute liver failure was 15 %, that was much higher than that in other primary disease. So was the peripheral neuropathy, which was 10 % in primary liver carcinoma.Conclusions The neurological complication is a kind of serious disease with high incidence after liver transplantation. Its onset may have some relationships with the primary liver disease.