One-year survival after liver transplantation in a group of geriatric patients

Abstract

Introduction and Objectives: Prevalence of patients with decompensated cirrhosis with requirement of liver transplantation (LT) has increased in our country. A significant percentage of patients with this condition belongs to a geriatric population, which could contraindicate LT, although trends in other countries indicate that the results of LT in geriatric patients are excellent.To assess one-year survival of LT patients over 60 years Materials and Patients: Retrospective, observational, and analytical study of patients over 60 years who underwent LT, evaluating survival, cold ischemia time (CIT), hot ischemia time (HIT), and donor age (DA), compared with a group of patients under 60 years who underwent LT.We evaluated survival over time in months with a follow-up at one year of recipients under 60 years and older than 60 using the Kaplan-Meier curve and the log-rank test, with a significant alpha level <0.05. Results: A total of 81 patients were included: 51 under (44.33 ±10.59) and 30 over 60 years (64.13 ±3.30), 31 females (38.27%) 50 males (61.72%). Etiologies of cirrhosis: alcohol intake 30.86%, autoimmune diseases 24.69%, MALFD 11%, hepatocellular carcinoma 9.88%. CIT and HIT in under and over 60 years were 313.64 ±97.69min and 29.91 ±6.14min, and 307.39 ±101.85min and 30.36 ±7.57min, respectively. DA was 35.55 ±14.33 years. Mortality rates were 11.76% (6/51) and 13.3% (4/30) in patients under and over 60 years, respectively, with a cumulative rate of 12.34% (10/81). The average survival in months was 12.27 (11.45-13.1, 95%CI) and 10.83 (9.6-12.0, 95%CI) in under and over 60 years, respectively. Comparison based on age was not statistically significant (log-rank test, Chi-square 1=0.742, p=0.389). Conclusions: One year survival in geriatric patients after LT is equal to that of younger patients, indicating that age should not be a contraindication for LT.