Yes –there is a retrospective study describing outcomes for patients who consume alchohol on the day of liver transplantation: J Ursic-Bedoya et al. Liver Transplantation 2021; 27: 34-42. Alcohol Consumption the Day of Liver Transplantation for Alcohol‐Associated Liver Disease Does Not Affect Long‐Term Survival: A Case‐Control Study

This study had 42 patients who had alcohol detectable in blood and/or urine matched with 84 controls among patients who received liver transplantation for alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD); this study had a median follow-up of 12.9 years..

Key findings:

• Long‐term survival was not different between the groups; however, rates of recurrent cirrhosis and cirrhosis‐related deaths were more frequent in the alcohol consumption group
• Relapse to any alcohol consumption rate was higher in the case group (59.5%) than in the control group (38.1%, odds ratio 2.44; CI_95% = [1.13; 5.27]), but sustained excessive consumption was not significantly different between the groups (33.3% versus 29.8% in case and control groups respectively, χ² = 0.68). 

My take: Yikes.! Fortunately, alcohol consumption is not a significant factor in pediatric liver disease. For adult hepatologists, this study highlights the need for patient support due to the frequency of alcohol relapse.

Related blog posts:

• Alcohol #1 reason for liver transplantation
• Alcohol in the setting of fatty liver disease