Results of liver transplantation at the Cuban Center for Medical and Surgical Research

From July 4, 1999, when a liver transplantation program was started in Cuba, to December 30, 2007, we performed 125 procedures in 115 patients. The most frequent reasons for transplantation were cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C virus (29%) and alcoholic cirrhosis (17.2%). Two patients received simultaneous liver-kidney transplants. Sixty-seven patients were males, and the patient ages ranged from 12 to 74 years. The average surgical time was 6 hours, and cold ischemia time was 4 to 14 hours. The average blood consumption was 1630 mL; 2900 mL of plasma and 8 units of platelets were used in 7 cases. Immunosuppression was mainly cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, and prednisone. Acute cellular rejections were treated in almost all cases with 3 doses of methylprednisolone. The most frequent complications were biliary (15%), hepatic arterial thrombosis (6%), postsurgical bleeding (8%), acute cellular rejection (20%), and ductopenic rejection (2%). The overall 1-year survival was 74.7%.