Outcomes of Early Liver Transplantation in a Hospital That Is Starting to Perform Liver Transplantation / 대한이식학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In Korea, the number of liver transplantation (LT) center is still changing. Many more centers are performing liver transplantations than that during the past decades. But several centers have stopped liver transplantation, while some centers have newly started performing liver transplantation. We present our initial experience in a newly built center as an example for any center that is considering performing LT. METHODS: A total of 33 consecutive adult LTs that were performed from June 2006 to October 2009 were analyzed by comparing the first 11 living donor liver transplants (LDLTs) performed with the help of an outside experienced team (group 2) with the second 11 LDLTs (group 3) and the 11 deceased donor liver transplantations (DDLTs) cases (group 1) that were independently performed in our center. RESULTS: There was no operative mortality for the donors and there were two operative mortalities for the recipients. During a mean follow-up of 27.1 months (range 2 days~61 months), there were two cases of late mortality for the recipients. There were no re-operations and no major complications for the donors. The warm ischemic time was significantly longer in group 1 than that in groups 2 and 3. Otherwise, there was no significant difference in the operative outcomes among the three groups. CONCLUSIONS: Thorough preparation and the valuable assistance of an experienced liver transplantation team at the beginning can facilitate a more rapid learning curve and bring about good outcomes even in a small, newly established institution.