ABO-incompatible liver transplantation for critically ill adult patients

ABO incompatible (ABO-In) liver transplant remains a controversial solution to acute liver failure in adults. Adult liver recipients with acute liver failure or severely decompensated end-stage disease, intubated and/or in the intensive care unit, were grouped as ABO-In (n = 14), ABO-compatible (n = 29, ABO-C) and ABO-identical (n = 65, ABO-Id). ABO-In received quadruple immunosuppression with antibody-depleting induction agents (except two), calcineurin inhibitors, antimetabolites and steroids. No significant difference of patient and graft survivals was observed among ABO-In, ABO-C and ABO-Id: graft survivals were 64%, 62% and 67%, respectively, in 1 year and 56%, 54% and 60%, respectively, in 5 years; patient survivals 86%, 69% and 67%, respectively, in 1 year and 77%, 61% and 62%, respectively, in 5 years. Three ABO-In grafts were lost (one hyper-acute rejection and two hepatic artery thrombosis). Surgical and infectious complications were similarly distributed between groups, except the hepatic artery thrombosis, more frequent in ABO-In (2, 14%) than ABO-I (1, 1.5%, P < 0.05). In contrast to previous studies, no significant difference of patient and graft survivals could be observed among all ABO-compatibility settings. Our results suggest that ABO-incompatible transplants should be viewed as an important therapeutic option in adult patients with acute liver failure awaiting an emergency procedure.