Reuters Health Information: Younger donor age tied to better survival after living-donor liver transplant
Younger donor age tied to better survival after living-donor liver transplant
Last Updated: 2017-04-14
By Reuters Staff
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In adult-to-adult living-donor
partial liver transplantation (LDLT), younger donor age is
associated with better recipient survival, researchers from
Japan report.
Younger livers generally exhibit better regeneration after
liver transplantation and hepatectomy, whereas older livers have
a significant risk for reinfection and rapid progression of
hepatitis C virus, resulting in lower rates of patient and graft
survival in HCV-positive recipients.
Dr. Koichiro Hata from Kyoto University Graduate School of
Medicine in Kyoto, Japan, and colleagues used data from 315
cases of primary adult-to-adult LDLT to investigate the impact
of donor age on survival outcomes.
The cumulative recipient survival was significantly higher
with donors in their 20s than in all the other donor groups,
whereas recipient age did not significantly affect their own
survival, the team reports in the Annals of Surgery, online
March 10.
Survival was highest in the child-to-parent transplant
group, despite the highest recipient age in this combination,
and survival was lowest in the parent-to-child group, even
though the recipient age was the youngest.
The presence of HCV infection did not influence survival.
In multivariate analyses, having donors in their 20s and the
use of right-sided grafts were independently associated with
better six-month recipient survival.
"Although further large-scale studies are required to
validate the results of this study," the researchers conclude,
"our results highlight the significance of liver age on partial
liver transplantation outcome and will be clinically valuable in
cases of adult LDLT and split liver transplantation.�
Dr. Hata did not respond to a request for comments.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2oAUtBx
Ann Surg 2017.
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