Objectives: Our goal was to evaluate the predictors of coagulopathic hemorrhage after living-donor liver transplant.
Materials and Methods:We retrospectively evaluated 161 patients who had undergone living-donor liver transplant from July 2005 to April 2014 at a single medical institution. Of these patients, 32 developed hemorrhage after transplant. Patients were separated into those with coagulopathy-related hemorrhage (n=15) or noncoagulopathy-related hemorrhage (n=17) based on the results of computed tomography images. Predictors of hemorrhage after living-donor liver transplant evaluated in this study included preoperative, perioperative, and posttransplant factors and hemodynamic status. Results: Patients who developed coagulopathy-related hemorrhage had significantly lower pretransplant platelet counts (P = .040), a longer cold-ischemia time (P = .045), more blood loss (P = .040), and earlier onset of hemorrhage (P = .048) than patients who had noncoagulopathy-related hemorrhage after transplant. Results of the generalized estimating equation analysis showed that heart rate and central venous pressure differed significantly between the 2 groups of patients. Heart rates increased significantly during hemorrhage (P < .010). Central venous pressure was higher in the coagulopathic group (P = .005) than in the noncoagulopathic group. Conclusions: Lower pretransplant platelet counts, longer cold ischemia time, more blood loss, earlier onset of hemorrhage, and higher central venous pressure level are indicators of coagulopathic hemorrhage after living-donor liver transplant.
Key words: Central venous pressure, Cold ischemia time, Computed tomography
IntroductionHemorrhage is one of the most common complications after liver transplant, especially during the first postoperative week. 1,2 There are many factors that contribute to postoperative hemorrhage, including the recipient's preoperative condition (for example, coagulopathy, thrombocytopenia), liver graft condition (donors > 60 years, steatosis), surgical technique (inadequate hemostasis of the cut surface of the remnant liver, blood loss from vascular anastomosis, and prolonged cold ischemia time), and recipient's postoperative condition (early graft dysfunction or primary nonfunction, use of heparin, vascular complications). [3][4][5][6] Regardless of the underlying causes of hemorrhage, hemorrhage after liver transplant can be classified as coagulopathic bleeding (bleeding related to poor graft function and coagulopathy, resulting in continuous oozing of blood) or noncoagulopathic bleeding (bleeding in patients with normal coagulation function).Computed tomography (CT) has been reported to be a sensitive modality for detecting active bleeding in patients with major trauma.