HCV infection is associated with lower survival in simultaneous liver kidney transplant recipients in the United States

Predictors of Length of Stay and Mortality During Simultaneous Liver-Kidney Transplant Index Admission: Results From the US-Multicenter SLKT Consortium

Length of stay (LOS) during index solid organ transplant impacts morbidity and healthcare costs. To date, there are no studies evaluating characteristics and outcomes of simultaneous liver-kidney transplant (SLKT) index hospitalization. We examined factors associated with LOS and mortality during index SLKT admission.

Methods

Adult SLKT recipients between 2002 and 2017 at 6 transplant centers across 6 UNOS regions were retrospectively enrolled in the US-Multicenter SLKT Consortium. Multivariable regression analyses assessed predictors of SLKT LOS and death during index admission.

Results

Median age of cohort (N = 570) was 58 y (interquartile range: 51-64); 63% male, 75% White, 32.3% hepatitis C, 23.3% alcohol-related, 20.1% nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with median MELD-Na at SLKT 28 (23-34). Seventy-one percent were hospitalized at the time of SLKT with median LOS pretransplant of 10 d. Majority of patients were discharged alive (N = 549; 96%)' and 36% were discharged to subacute rehab facility. LOS for index SLKT was 19 d (Q1: 10, Q3: 34 d). Female sex (P = 0.003), Black race (P = 0.02), advanced age (P = 0.007), ICU admission at time of SLKT (P = 0.03), high MELD-Na (P = 0.003), on cyclosporine during index hospitalization (P = 0.03), pre-SLKT dialysis (P < 0.001), and kidney delayed graft function (P < 0.001) were the recipient factors associated with prolonged LOS during index SLKT hospitalization. Prolonged LOS also contributed to overall mortality (HR = 1.007; P = 0.03).

Conclusions

Despite excellent survival, index SLKT admission was associated with high-resource utilization with more than half the patients with LOS >2 wk and affected overall patient survival. Further investigation is needed to optimize healthcare resources for these patients in a financially strained healthcare landscape.

Receiving Hypertensive Donor Grafts Is Associated with Inferior Prognosis in Simultaneous Liver-Kidney Transplantation Recipients

Background

The impact of hypertensive (HTN) donor grafts on the prognosis of simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation (SLKT) patient is not known, and an applicable risk scoring system for SLKT patient survival is lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of donor HTN on patient survival of SLKT recipients and to identify independent risk factors.

Material/Methods

Data from 3844 adult SLKT recipients receiving deceased donor grafts from March 2002 to December 2014 in the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) database were retrospectively analyzed. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare patient and graft survival. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were built to identify independent risk factors associated with patient and graft survival.

Results

SLKT patients receiving HTN donor grafts had significantly shorter 5-year patient survival and kidney graft survival rates than did those receiving non-HTN donor grafts (50.1% vs. 63.2%, p<0.0001 and 45.4% vs. 67.8%, p<0.0001, respectively). Multivariate analysis identified HTN donor, donor age, donation after cardiac death, cold ischemia time, recipient age, recipient condition at transplant, recipient hepatitis C infection, need for life support, and recipient pre-transplant albumin level as independent risk factors associated with inferior patient survival in SLKT recipients. A risk scoring model that predicted excellent stratification of prognostic subgroups was established (AUC, 0.762; 95% CI, 0.739–0.785).

Conclusions

An SLKT patient receiving a graft from an HTN donor has an inferior prognosis. A risk scoring system applicable to patient survival in SLKT recipients was developed.

Outcomes of simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation: implications for patient selection

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Rates of simultaneous liver kidney (SLK) transplantation have continued to increase despite lack of clear allocation guidelines and outcomes data. The organ procurement and transplantation network (OPTN)/UNOS board approved a new SLK allocation policy to standardize medical eligibility and optimize organ utilization. This review highlights the rationale behind these new selection criteria and posttransplant outcomes in various patient populations.

RECENT FINDINGS

Uniform criteria for SLK transplantation were adopted in August 2017 and state SLK should be reserved for select patients with cirrhosis who have chronic kidney disease for longer than 3 months, sustained acute kidney injury, or particular metabolic diseases. Many patients who previously underwent SLK did not meet these criteria, reducing organ availability for patients awaiting kidney-alone transplantation. The new criteria includes a 'safety net' policy allowing for renal transplant priority for liver-alone recipients who do not meet criteria for SLK but fail to have renal recovery within the first year.

SUMMARY

The new SLK allocation policy was adopted to avoid kidney transplantation in those patients who have a significant chance of recovering renal function post-liver transplant and those with a poor chance of survival in whom SLK is futile.

Direct-acting antiviral regimens are safe and effective in the treatment of hepatitis C in simultaneous liver-kidney transplant recipients

Hepatitis C (HCV) remains the single most common etiology of end-stage liver disease leading to simultaneous liver/kidney transplant (SLKT) and has worse post-transplant survival compared to non-HCV patients. We aim to assess the effectiveness and tolerance of the all-oral direct-acting antiviral (DAA) agents with or without ribavirin (RBV) in the treatment of HCV recurrence post-SLKT. Thirty-four patients were studied retrospectively, composed predominantly of treatment-naïve (73.5%) non-Caucasian (61.8%) males (82.4%) infected with genotype 1a (64.7%). 94.1% reached a sustained virologic response (SVR) after 24 weeks (32/34 patients), without difference between 12 and 24 weeks of therapy. 64.7% had no clinical side effects. Three deaths occurred, all unrelated to treatment. One patient had liver rejection; tacrolimus was increased and prednisone was initiated while HCV treatment was continued and the patient ultimately achieved SVR. No liver graft losses. No kidney rejection or losses. We demonstrated that DAA combinations with or without RBV result in a remarkable SVR rate and tolerated in the majority of the studied SLKT patients. It is safe to wait to treat until post-kidney transplant and therefore increase the donor pool for these patients. Our cohort is ethnically diverse, making our results generalizable.

Pretransplant diabetes mellitus predicts worse outcomes of liver transplantation: evidence from meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

It has been demonstrated that the prognosis of liver transplantation (LT) is significantly influenced by pretransplant factors, such as diabetes mellitus (DM). However, inconsistent observations are obtained.

METHODS

We comprehensively searched PubMed, Embase and Web of Science to identify eligible cohort studies to evaluate the impact of preexisting DM on LT prognosis. Overall mortality and graft loss, as the most frequently observed parameters, were used to evaluate the outcomes of LT. Hazard ratios (HRs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled to assess the effect of DM.

RESULTS

15,768 diabetic LT recipients and 60,176 non-diabetic LT recipients from 13 populations were included in this meta-analysis. Preexisting DM increased the risk for overall death of LT by 40% (95% CI 1.22-1.61), compared with DM-free patients. In addition, the risk for graft loss was also elevated by pretransplant DM (HR 1.28, 95% CI 1.07-1.54). Both analyses showed high heterogeneities (I ² = 85.2 and 93.2%, respectively) and their sources were not identified by meta-regression analyses. In terms of the additive effect of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on poor outcomes of diabetic LT recipients, stratified meta-analyses were conducted. It was demonstrated that HCV infection increased the risk for mortality by 73% (95% CI 1.64-1.83), relatively higher than non-HCV recipients (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.25-1.39) and general population (HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.22-1.61).

CONCLUSION

Preexisting DM predicts worse patient and graft survivals of LT. Concomitant HCV infection would further deteriorate this unfavorable impact. Given the high heterogeneities and the insufficient evidences, more studies are still warranted to support these observations.

Secondary analysis of large databases for hepatology research

Secondary analysis of large datasets involves the utilization of existing data that has typically been collected for other purposes to advance scientific knowledge. This is an established methodology applied in health services research with the unique advantage of efficiently identifying relationships between predictor and outcome variables but which has been underutilized for hepatology research. Our review of 1431 abstracts published in the 2013 European Association for the Study of Liver (EASL) abstract book showed that less than 0.5% of published abstracts utilized secondary analysis of large database methodologies. This review paper describes existing large datasets that can be exploited for secondary analyses in liver disease research. It also suggests potential questions that could be addressed using these data warehouses and highlights the strengths and limitations of each dataset as described by authors that have previously used them. The overall goal is to bring these datasets to the attention of readers and ultimately encourage the consideration of secondary analysis of large database methodologies for the advancement of hepatology.