Adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation in acute liver failure

Living Donor Liver Transplantation(LDLT) in acute liver failure(ALF) patients has been limited by concerns regarding donor safety, consent process and recipient outcomes. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review(SR) and meta-analysis to address the concerns about subpar LDLT outcomes in patients with ALF.

We retrieved a total of 5965 literature references in our SR. United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database was queried for patients over the age of 18, who underwent LDLT for "status 1" or "status 1A" listing.

Of 427 articles reviewed, 3 studies comprising 2574 patients (192 underwent LDLT and 2382 DDLT), were included in the meta-analysis. One, 3,5-year patient and graft survival demonstrated no difference between LDLT and DDLT group: 1-year patient survival OR1.51; 95%CI [0.58,1.90]; 1-year graft survival OR 1.19; 95%CI [0.65-2.18]; 3-year patient survival OR 0.97;95%CI [0.52-1.88]; 3-year graft survival OR 1.21 95%CI [0.67-2.16]; 5-year patient survival 0.9; 95%CI [0.37-2.20]; 5-year graft survival OR 1.30; 95%CI [0.57-2.97]. UNOS database search returned only 3 patients that underwent LDLT for ALF compared to 1562 with DDLT, precluding comparison.

One, 3, and 5-year patient and graft survival following LDLT vs DDLT transplantation were not statistically significantly different; however, due to limited number of studies further studies are warranted.