Impact of Pretransplant Infections on Clinical Course in Liver Transplant Recipients

Uncontrolled infections are known to be an absolute contraindication for liver transplantation; however, the posttransplant prognosis of recipients treated for pretransplant infection is unclear. The aim of this study was to analyze pretransplant infections among liver transplant recipients and to determine their impact on posttransplant clinical outcomes.

This study retrospectively analyzed 357 subjects who had undergone living-donor liver transplantation between January 2008 and May 2014.

Among 357 recipients, 71 patients (19.8%) had 74 episodes of infectious complications before liver transplantation. These complications consisted of pneumonia (n = 13), spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (n = 12), catheter-related infection (n = 10), urinary tract infection (n = 12), biliary tract infection (n = 6), and skin and soft-tissue infection (n = 3). Twenty-six patients experienced 29 episodes of bacteremia, and the most common pathogens were coagulase-negative staphylococci (n = 8), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (n = 7), Staphylococcus aureus (n = 4), and Streptococcus species (n = 3). Twenty-one bacteremic episodes (70%) occurred within 1 month before transplantation (n = 4). Recipients with pretransplant infections had significantly more frequent posttransplant infections (71.8% [51 of 71] vs 47.2% [35 of 286]; P = .0001), posttransplant bacteremia (33.8% [24 of 71] vs 20.3% [58 of 286]; P = .015), and longer posttransplant intensive care unit stays (11.2 ± 10.7 days vs 7.3 ± 4.2 days; P = .0004) than those without pretransplant infections. However, episodes of rejection (P = .36), length of hospitalization (P = .10), 28-day mortality (P = .31), and 1-year mortality (P = .61) after transplantation were not significantly different between the 2 groups.

Pretransplant infection had an impact on posttransplant morbidity, although not on rejection and mortality. Alertness for posttransplant infection and proper management (including effective antimicrobial coverage) would improve patient morbidity.