Economic impact of graft's cold ischemia time on infection and post-liver transplant costs

Liver transplantation is a complex and costly surgical procedure funded by the Brazilian public health system. This study analyzed the hospital costs of patients who underwent liver transplantation and their relationship with graft cold ischemia time, as well as evaluated the impact of infection rate, length of hospital stay, and hospital expenses on survival and total costs.

This is a retrospective economic evaluation study that analyzed 40 medical records of patients who underwent liver transplantation in 2018 at a public hospital in São Paulo. Micro- and macro-costing methodologies were applied to calculate direct and fixed postoperative costs.

Each additional hour of cold ischemia time increased the risk of infection by 2.6 times (95% CI: 1.28-7.51; p=0.025). Patients with more than 8 hours of cold ischemia had longer hospital stays (average of 36 days) and higher costs (average of R$98,190.42) compared to those with less than 8 hours (20 days and R$49,519.05). Patients who developed an infection remained hospitalized 2.16 times longer and had higher average total costs (R$148,400.00) compared to those without infection (R$58,200.00). Higher expenditures on materials, medications, nursing care, and prolonged stays in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were associated with lower survival.

Cold ischemia time directly influenced the increase in costs and higher rates of posttransplant infection. Higher expenditures on materials, medications, nursing care, and prolonged ICU stays were associated with lower survival rates.