Score-aided decision making in patients with severe liver damage after hepatic transplantation

This article describes how a system of scoring risk factors contributes to deciding whether a patient showing signs of liver failure soon after hepatic transplantation should be treated expectedly or should undergo immediate retransplantation. Of 78 adult patients receiving a first liver graft, 25 had evidence of severe damage of the graft and were further investigated. Nine had failure due to irreversible initial nonfunction, and 2 of the 9 died before a second graft was available. Seven were retransplanted with 3 long-term survivors. The other 16 patients showed reversible severe damage and survived without retransplantation. Since retransplantation for irreversible initial nonfunction is successful only in the first postoperative days, there is an urgent need to identify the degree of the observed damage. We devised a scoring system which identified and weighted factors that were predictable in determining irreversibility. Measurements of highest relevance are transaminases, bile volume, the slope of the enzyme GLDH, and the amount of fresh blood and fresh-frozen plasma required for support on the day of operation and the following day. Logistic regressional analysis produced a numerical score which was applied to a decision tree and produced probabilities and utilities to indicate whether reoperation is advisable. We use this scoring system and believe it assists our decisions in the early posttransplant period.