Rejection after pediatric liver transplantation is not the limiting factor to survival

Liver transplantation became a very successful therapy when cyclosporin A was introduced as an immunosuppressive agent. In an effort to evaluate the contribution of difficult or uncontrolled allograft rejection to mortality, the authors determined the most important factors that limited survival after liver transplantation. Eighty-two children received a total of 94 liver transplants from January 1987 to the present. Patients' records were reviewed for complications that contributed to morbidity and mortality and to assess which complications were preventable. Twelve patients died (15%), nine within 6 weeks of liver transplantation. The chief contributing cause of death was hepatic artery thrombosis (one patient), brain death after liver transplantation for fulminant hepatic failure (two patients), primary allograft nonfunction or dysfunction (two patients), allograft rejection (three patients), or other problems (four patients). Overall, hepatic artery thrombosis occurred in 3.1%, allograft rejection in 57%, fulminant hepatic failure in 7%, and donor organ dysfunction in 7%. Allograft rejection contributed directly to the cause of death in three children (4%). The authors conclude that few deaths after pediatric liver transplantation are caused by failure of immunosuppression. A high survival rate can be achieved after transplantation by eliminating the correctable complications that most frequently occur in the early postoperative period.