Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is characterized by hypoxia, orthodeoxia, and platypnea, associated with severe chronic liver disease. Liver transplantation is generally viewed as the only curative treatment for this syndrome, but it may be complicated by prolonged hypoxia after the procedure. We report on a 58-year-old female patient with alcoholic cirrhosis and HPS who underwent liver transplantation. She developed severe hypoxia after transplantation that improved with the initiation of Trendelenburg's positioning in combination with continuous lateral rotation. Although many techniques for dealing with posttransplant hypoxia for HPS have been described, positioning is a simple maneuver that may correct the pathophysiologic abnormalities seen in HPS by gravitationally shifting blood away from the lung bases to improve oxygenation. Although this represents a single patient, the results were reproducible, and the intervention is simple and associated with minimal potential complications. The authors think this is a useful intervention to apply to the severely hypoxic patient with HPS, and a trial with more patients is warranted.
Copyright 1998 by the American Association for the Study of Liver DiseasesT he ability of continuous lateral rotation therapy (CLRT) to help manage pulmonary complications in the intensive care unit setting has been well documented. [1][2][3][4] Reports have described the use of CLRT to decrease the duration of mechanical ventilation and the incidence of lower respiratory tract infection and increase the length of time before the development of respiratory tract infection and pneumonia. [1][2][3][4] Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a known sequela of liver failure that is characterized by liver disease, pulmonary vascular dilation, and abnormal arterial oxygenation, which can result in severe hypoxemia. 5 It was previously considered to be a relative contraindication to orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) because of the increased risk for mortality, both in the perioperative and postoperative periods. [6][7][8] However, more recent data have been supportive of OLT as treatment for HPS, even in the severely hypoxic patient. 6,9 Case studies have shown that HPS can be reversible after successful transplantation in up to 84% of the patients; the main cause of death is refractory hypoxemia and/or multisystem failure secondary to hypoxia. 6,10 Both survivors and nonsurvivors may need weeks and sometimes months of supportive treatment for prolonged hypoxemia, because not all patients recover from HPS in the immediate postoperative period. We report the use of Trendelenburg' s positioning combined with CLRT to improve and maintain oxygenation in a patient with HPS who underwent OLT.
Case ReportA 58-year-old woman with end-stage liver disease secondary to alcoholic cirrhosis underwent OLT at St Francis Medical Center, a 220-bed acute care and transplant center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Before the procedure, she was given a diagnosis of type I HPS based on clinical findings and pulmonary arteriogr...