Liver Transplant Outcomes in Children: Two Studies

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Jean de Ville de Goyet et al. Hepatology 2022; 75: 634-645. European Liver Transplant Registry: Donor and transplant surgery aspects of 16,641 liver transplantations in children

This is an amazing study — “50-year period (1968–2017), clinical and laboratory data were collected from 133 transplant centers and analyzed retrospectively (16,641 liver transplants in 14,515 children).”

Key findings:

  • Overall, the 5-year graft survival rate has improved from 65% in group A (before 2000) to 75% in group B (2000-2009) (p < 0.0001) and to 79% in group C (since 2010) (B versus C, p < 0.0001).
  • Graft half-life was 31 years, overall; it was 41 years for children who survived the first year after transplant.
  •  The use of living donors steadily increased from A to C (A, n = 296 [7%]; B, n = 1131 [23%]; and C, n = 1985 [39%]; p = 0.0001)

My take: Liver transplantation provides a durable cure for most infants and children with severe liver disease.

A Shingina et al. Liver Transplantation 2022; 28: 437-453. Long-term Outcomes of Pediatric Living Versus Deceased Donor Liver Transplantation Recipients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Associated editorial: EM Dugan, AD Griesemer. Pediatric Living Donor Liver Transplantation: Optimizing Outcomes for Recipients, Donors, and the Waiting List

A total of 24 studies with 3677 patients who underwent living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and 9098 patients who underwent deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) were included for analysis. Key findings:

Overall, this meta-analysis shows improved patient and graft survival at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years with LDLT compared to DDLT:

  • Patient survival: LDLT vs DDLT: 1-year (odds ratio [OR], 0.68), 3-year (OR, 0.73), 5-year (OR, 0.71), and 10-year (OR, 0.42)
  • Graft survival — LDLT vs DDLT: 1-year (OR, 0.50), 3-year (OR, 0.55), 5-year (OR, 0.5; 95), and 10-year (OR, 0.26)

While LDLT is often technically more challenging, it provides timely access (reducing wait-time deaths/deterioration) to a high-quality organ with minimal preservation time. In this cohort, LDLT patients had higher MELD and PELD scores at transplantation compared to the DDLT.

My take: Increasing use of LDLT, at centers with appropriate expertise, will lead to better outcomes in children with severe liver disease.

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