Long-term Clinical Outcomes and Predictive Factors for Living-donor Liver Transplant Recipients With Biliary Strictures

Abstract

Background. Biliary strictures frequently occur in living-donor liver transplant (LDLT) recipients. However, long-term clinical outcomes and their associated factors are unclear. Methods. We analyzed an historical cohort of 228 recipients who underwent LDLT with post-liver transplantation biliary strictures. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography or percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage were performed to treat biliary strictures. Patients that experienced persistent jaundice over 3 mo after the initial treatment were defined as a remission-failure group. Results. Median observation period was 8.5 y after the diagnosis of biliary stricture. The 15-y graft survival (GS) rate was 70.6%, and 15-y rate of developing portal hypertension (PH) was 26.1%. Remission failure occurred in 25.0% of study participants. In the multivariate analysis, biopsy-proven acute rejection, and portal vein/hepatic artery abnormalities were risk factors for remission failure. Development of PH, retransplantation, and death were significantly more frequent in the remission-failure group. Remission failure and PH were associated with poor GS. In multivariate analyses, hepatic artery abnormality and biloma were common significant factors that were associated with a poor GS and development of PH. Conclusions. The insufficient blood supply reflected by hepatic artery abnormality and biloma might be the most important factor that can predict poor long-term survival in LDLT patients with biliary strictures. Future large-scale prospective studies are needed to validate our observations.

The Course of Endoscopic Treatment Success in Biliary Complications After Living Donor Liver Transplantation

“…In a study by Han et al 25 , the average time to diagnosis of biliary strictures after LDLT was 4.2 months, whereas in our study it was approximately 3.5 months. These results suggest that BCs after LDLT are more common in the first 6 months postoperatively.…”

Efficacy of different stent types in post-liver-transplant anastomotic biliary strictures: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Anastomotic biliary strictures post liver transplantation (LT) represent a particular category of benign biliary strictures, impacting the survival of both graft and patient [ 1 ]. They are primarily diagnosed within 12 months post-transplantation with a prevalence of 6.6-35.5%, associated with recurrent cholangitis, transplant failure or rejection, prolonged admissions, graft survival reduction, portal hypertension, re-transplantation, and a healthcare and cost burden [ 1 - 4 ].…”