Management of a patient on dual antiplatelet therapy presented for living donor liver transplant

Abstract

We report a case of a patient who underwent Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT) while being continued on his dual antiplatelet regimen of clopidigrel and aspirin perioperatively. The patient had two drug eluting stents for coronary artery disease placed eight months prior to surgery. Preoperative thromboelastography and platelet mapping showed normal clot formation. Based on these tests it was determined that preoperative platelet transfusion was not necessary. The surgery proceeded relatively uneventfully. The patient received 1 unit of packed red blood cells intraoperatively and continued on aspirin during the postoperative period with no evidence of bleeding or cardiac ischemia.