J Korean Med Sci.  1998 Jun;13(3):299-305. 10.3346/jkms.1998.13.3.299.

Experience of orthotopic liver transplantation in 11 patients with liver cirrhosis from Korea: medical factors affecting outcome

• Choi JY
• Park YM
• Byun BH
• Kim TY
• Yoon SK
• Chung KW
• Sun HS
• Park DH
• Kim BS
• Kim DG
• Kim IC

• KMID: 1745554
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.1998.13.3.299

Abstract

Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) has evolved to become a standard treatment of choice for end-stage liver diseases. The present study was performed to evaluate the peri-operative medical factors affecting transplantation outcome and to determine if patients with type B viral cirrhosis were acceptable for OLT. A total of 11 patients with end-stage cirrhosis, who have received OLT in Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital since May 1993, included 8 HBV-related cases, 1 Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)-related case, and 2 non-B, non-C cases. One-year cumulative survival rate by Kaplan-Meier method was 43.7%. Factors significantly associated with 1-year survival of the recipients during pre-OLT period were performance status and modified Pugh-Child score (p=0.015 and p=0.015, respectively). Among those 4 patients who lived longer than 1 year, 3 of 4 patients with HBsAg-positive had no HBV re-infection with our protocol. These results suggest that, to improve the outcome of OLT in cirrhosis patients, transplantation should be performed in the stage when patients maintain better performance and hepatic functional reserve during the end-stage of liver cirrhosis. In addition, patients with cirrhosis caused by HBV infection may be indicated for OLT, because HBV re-infection is preventable effectively with a high-dose hepatitis B immunoglobulin protocol.

MeSH Terms

Adolescence
Adult
Hepatitis B Surface Antigens/analysis
Hepatitis B Virus
Hepatitis C-Like Viruses
Human
Liver Cirrhosis/virology
Liver Cirrhosis/surgery*
Liver Transplantation*
Male
Middle Age
Predictive Value of Tests
Treatment Outcome