The impact of donor liver graft quality on postoperative outcome in liver transplant recipients. A single centre experience.

INTRODUCTION: The Donor Risk Index (DRI) has become a universal score for organ allocation in liver transplantation (LT) worldwide. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of liver graft quality measured by DRI, CIT, WIT and donor age on intraoperative hemodynamics (reperfusion syndrome) and early postoperative outcome, defined as initial graft poor function (within 3 days of LT), of deceased donor liver transplant (DDLT) recipients. Secondary end-points were the assessment of the impact of graft quality on the intraoperative and postoperative day 1 hemostasis (evaluated using ROTEM assay).
METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 135 patients who underwent deceased-donor LT between January 2013 and December 2014. Patient demographic data (age, sex, cause of End-Stage Liver Disease), preoperative paraclinical data (total bilirubin, creatinine, serum sodium), severity of liver disease scores (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease - MELD and MELD-sodium), intraoperative blood loss and blood products transfusion, incidence of post reperfusion syndrome, postoperative biochemical data (including total bilirubin, hepatic transaminases, lactate levels) and outcome (initial graft poor function diagnosis) were noted. Donor characteristics including DRI, CIT, WIT and donor age were noted. Coagulation was assessed by rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) after reperfusion of the graft and on postoperative day 1 in order to determine the effects of liver graft quality on hemostasis.
RESULTS: Donor age has significantly correlated with decreased derived ROTEM parameters time to the maximum velocity of clot formation - MaxVt (p = 0.000), area under the curve (AUC) (p = 0.008) and maximum clot elasticity (MCE) (p = 0.018) although no difference in transfusion requirements has been observed. A longer CIT was associated with an increase in AST and ALT observed during the early postoperative period: day 1 ALT (p = 0.032) and AST (p = 0.008), day 2 ALT (p = 0.001) and AST (p = 0.001) and day 3 AST (p = 0.010) and ALT (p = 0.001). Higher DRI correlated with higher bilirubin levels measured on postoperative day 1 (p = 0.027) and 2 (p = 0.001). Patients who developed initial graft poor function received liver grafts from older donors (p = 0.05) with a higher DRI (p = 0.002).
CONCLUSION: Our results suggest a significant impact of donor age and DRI on perioperative coagulation kinetics that may be a result of initial graft poor function. Although CIT and DRI correlated with a more severe cholestasis and hepatocitolysis during the early postoperative period these seems to be short-lived.