Donation After Circulatory Death Liver Transplantation: Impact of Normothermic Machine Perfusion on Key Variables

During orthotopic liver transplantation, allograft reperfusion is a dynamic point in the operation and often requires vasoactive medications and blood transfusions. Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) of liver allografts has emerged to increase the number of transplantable organs and may have utility during donation after circulatory death (DCD) liver transplantation in reducing transfusion burden and vasoactive medication requirements.

This is a single-center retrospective study involving 226 DCD liver transplant recipients who received an allograft transported with NMP (DCD-NMP group) or with static cold storage (DCD-SCS group). Veno-venous bypass was not used in any patients. Infusion doses of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and vasopressin as well as bolus doses of vasoactive medications during reperfusion were recorded. Blood component therapy was recorded according to phase of liver transplantation and during the first 24 hours postprocedure.

A total of 103 recipients in the DCD-NMP group and 123 patients in the DCD-SCS group were included. Post-reperfusion syndrome (PRS) incidence was reduced in the DCD-NMP group compared to the DCD-SCS group (10.7% [95% confidence interval, CI, 5.5%-18.3%] vs 42.3% [95% CI, 33.4%-51.5%]; P < .001). During the reperfusion period, patients in the DCD-SCS group required increased bolus doses of epinephrine and vasopressin compared to the DCD-NMP group (24.6 vs 7.5 µg; P < .001) and (5.4 vs 2.4 units; P < .001), respectively. The DCD-SCS group received a higher infusion dose of epinephrine during anhepatic phase, at reperfusion, and up to 90 minutes after reperfusion. In the postreperfusion period, there were significant increases in the transfusion of red blood cells (RBCs; 5.3 vs 3.7 units; P = .006), fresh frozen plasma (FFP; 3.4 vs 1.9 units; P < .001), cryoprecipitate (2.7 vs 1.8 pooled units; P = .015) and platelets (0.9 vs 0.4 units; P = .008) in the DCD-SCS group compared to the DCD-NMP group. During the first 24 hours postprocedure, transfusion of RBCs, FFP, and cryoprecipitate in the DCD-SCS group was increased compared to the DCD-NMP group ([2.6 vs 1.7 units; P = .028], [1.6 vs 0.8 units; P < .001], [1.5 vs 0.9 pooled units; P = .031]) respectively. Administration of tranexamic acid was more frequent in the DCD-SCS group during the post-reperfusion period compared to the DCD-NMP group (13% [95% CI, 5.7%-17.4%] vs 3.9% [95% CI, 1.1%-9.6% 95%]; P = .018).

In DCD liver transplantation, use of NMP was associated with reduced incidence of PRS and decreased vasopressor and inotrope requirements at the time of allograft reperfusion compared to using SCS. Additionally, NMP was associated with reduced transfusion of all blood product components as well as antifibrinolytic agent administration in the post-reperfusion period. Reduced transfusion burden in the DCD-NMP group also occurred during the first 24 hours posttransplant.