Combined Cardiothoracic Surgery and Liver Transplantation Versus Isolated Liver Transplantation

Combined cardiothoracic surgery and liver transplantation (cCSLT) recently increasingly has been used. Despite that, liver transplant immediately after cardiothoracic surgery has not been well-characterized. The authors aimed to compare perioperative management and postoperative outcomes between patients undergoing cCSLT and isolated liver transplantation (iLT).

A retrospective study.

University tertiary medical center.

Twenty-five cCSLT patients and 1091 iLT patients at a single institution from 2010 to 2017.

Twenty-five cCSLT patients were compared with 100 randomly selected and 100 propensity-matched iLT patients.

All cCSLT patients underwent comprehensive preoperative evaluation by a multidisciplinary team. Of 25 cardiothoracic surgeries, heart transplant (n = 9) was most common, followed by coronary artery bypass grafting (n = 5) and lung transplant (n = 3). Intraoperative management of cCSLT was provided by 2 separate teams, one for cardiothoracic surgery and one for liver transplantation. Patients undergoing cCSLT often required cardiopulmonary bypass, an intra-aortic balloon pump, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or cardiac pharmacologic therapies and, additionally, needed more interventions including antifibrinolytic administration, venovenous bypass, massive blood transfusion, and platelet transfusions compared with iLT patients. Ninety-day survival rates were similar in the cCSLT (100%) and iLT groups (random iLT 87% and matched iLT 93%, log-rank test p = 0.089).

Despite having end-stage liver disease and advanced cardiothoracic disorders and experiencing a complex intraoperative course, cCSLT patients had comparable 90-day survival to iLT patients. Comprehensive planning before transplant, optimal patient/donor selection, the multiple-team model, and meticulous intraoperative management are critical to the success of cCSLT.