Treatment of biliary complications after liver transplantation / 中华消化外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effective strategies to prevent and treat biliary complications after orthotopic liver transplantation.Methods The clinical data of 316 patients who received orthotopic liver transplantation at the Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command from November 2001 to March 2012 were retrospectively analyzed.Cold perfusion with HTK + UW solution was applied when obtaining the liver graft,and then the liver graft was preserved in the UW solution.The bile duct was perfused with UW solution thereafter.Orthotopic liver transplantation or piggyback liver transplantation were adopted in the cadaver liver transplantation.Left liver transplantation and right liver transplantation were adopted in the living donor liver transplantation.Choledochojejunal Roux-en-Y anastomosis or duct-to-duct choledochostomy were used for biliary reconstruction.Ordinary T tubes were used for drainage before 2006,and then 6 F pediatric suction catheter or epidural catheter were applied for drainage thereafter.The Ttube was pulled out 3-6 months after the operation.Enteral nutrition was applied to patients at the early phase after operation.The immunosuppressive agents used including tacrolimus + mycophenolatemofetil + adrenal cortical hormone,and for some patients,tacrolimus + mycophenolatemofetil + sirolimus + hormone were used.Patients were followed up for 2 years to learn the incidence of biliary complications and guide the medication.The difference in the incidence of bile leakage between patients who wcrc admitted before 2006 and those admitted after 2006 were compared using the chi-square test.Results The warm ischemia time was 2-6 minutes,and the cold ischemia time was 3-10 hours.For patients who received cadaver liver transplantation,orthotopic liver transplantation was carried out for 291 times and piggyback liver transplantation for 24 times; biliojejunal Roux-en-Y anastomosis was carried out for 5 times and bile duct end-to-end anastomosis for 310 times.For patients who received living donor liver transplantation,1 received left liver transplantation and 1 received right liver transplantation,and they received bile duct end-to-end anastomosis.A total of 311 patients received immunosuppressive treatment with tacrolimus + mycophenolatemofetil + adrenal cortical hormone,and 5 patients reveived tacrolimus + mycophenolatemofetil + sirolimus + hormone.Of the 316 patients who received orthotopic liver transplantation,38 had biliary complications after the operation,including bile leakage in 18 patients,intra-and extra-hepatic bile duct stricture in 6 patients,anastomotic stricture in 6 patients,biliarycomplications included cholangitis in the portal area and cholestasis in 4 patients,choledocholithiasis and cholangitis in 2 patients and biliary infection in 2 patients.The incidence of bile leakage before 2006 was 14.00％ (7/50),which was significantly higher than 4.12％ (11/267) of bile leakage after 2006 (x2-7.676,P ＜ 0.05).Of the 38 patients with biliary complications,the condition of 35 patients was improved,and 3 patients died.Of the 18 patients with bile leakage,15 was cured by conservative treatment,3 received surgical treatment (the condition of 1 patient was improved by drainage,anti-infection treatment and nutritional support,but died of peritoneal hemorrhage at postoperative 1 month; 2 patients received peritoneal drainage,1 was cured and 1 died of peritoneal infection).For the 6 patients with intra-and extra-hepatic bile duct stricture,1 was cured by liver retransplantation and 5 were cured by conservative treatment,endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP) or balloon dilation.For the 6 patients with anastomotic stricture,the condition of 3 patients was improved by conservative treatment,balloon dilation or stent implantation,1 gave up treatment due to hepatic cancer recurrence and died thereafter,1 received anastomosis + T tube drainage,1 was cured by recurrent tumor resection and choledochojejunostomy.Four patients with cholangitis in the portal area and cholestasis were cured by conservative treatment.For the 2 patients with choledocholithiasis and cholangitis,1 was cured by stent implantation with ERCP,and 1 received conservative treatment,and the level of total bilirubin was decreased.Two patients with biliary infection were cured by anti-infection treatment.Conclusions Most of the biliary complications could be treated by non-surgical treatments.For patients with severe biliary complications or those could not be treated by non-surgical treatment,re-exploration of the bile duct is effective.Liver re-transplantation is the only choice for patients with dysfunction of liver graft caused by severe ischemic biliary injury.