The heart in liver transplantation

Challenges in transplantation for alcoholic liver disease

Transplantation for the treatment of alcoholic cirrhosis is more controversially discussed than it is for any other indication. The crucial aspect in this setting is abstinence before and after liver transplantation. We established pre-transplant selection criteria for potential transplant candidates. Provided that the underlying disease can be treated, there is no reason to withhold liver transplantation in a patient suffering from alcoholic cirrhosis. Evaluation of the patient by a multidisciplinary team, including an addiction specialist, is considered to be the gold standard. However, several centers demand a specified period of abstinence - usually 6 mo- irrespective of the specialist’s assessment. The 6-mo rule is viewed critically because liver transplantation was found to clearly benefit selected patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis; the benefit was similar to that achieved for other acute indications. However, the discussion may well be an academic one because the waiting time for liver transplantation exceeds six months at the majority of centers. The actual challenge in liver transplantation for alcoholic cirrhosis may well be the need for lifelong post-transplant follow-up rather than the patient’s pre-transplant evaluation. A small number of recipients experience a relapse of alcoholism; these patients are at risk for organ damage and graft-related death. Post-transplant surveillance protocols should demonstrate alcohol relapse at an early stage, thus permitting the initiation of adequate treatment. Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis are at high risk of developing head and neck, esophageal, or lung cancer. The higher risk of malignancies should be considered in the routine assessment of patients suffering from alcoholic cirrhosis. Tumor surveillance protocols for liver transplant recipients, currently being developed, should become a part of standard care; these will improve survival by permitting diagnosis at an early stage. In conclusion, the key factor determining the outcome of transplantation for alcoholic cirrhosis is intensive lifelong medical and psychological care. Post-transplant surveillance might be much more important than pre-transplant selection.

Reversible non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy and left ventricular dysfunction after liver transplantation: a single-centre experience

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy (NIC) is an early complication of liver transplantation (LT). Our aims were to define the prevalence, associated clinical factors, and prognosis of this condition.

METHODS

A retrospective study was performed on patients undergoing LT at our institution from January 2005 to December 2012. Patients who developed NIC were identified. Data collected included demographic and clinical data.

RESULTS

A total 1460 transplants were performed in this period and seventeen patients developed NIC. Pretransplant median QTc interval was 459 (range, 405-530), and median E/A ratio was 1 (range, 0.71-1.67). Fourteen patients (82%) were severely malnourished and required nutritional support. Thirteen patients (76%) had renal insufficiency. Median time to onset was 2 days post-transplant (range, 0-20). Echocardiograms showed global left ventricular hypokinesis and a decrease in ejection fraction (EF) from a median of 65% (range, 50-81) pretransplant to a median of 21% (range, 15-32). Median raw model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score was 29 in patients with NIC vs. 18 in patients without cardiomyopathy (P = 0.01). There was no significant difference between recipients with NIC vs. recipients without cardiomyopathy regarding donor age, donor risk index, and cold and warm ischaemia time. Recovery of cardiac function occurred in 16 patients, with a median EF of 44% (range, 25-65%) at the time of discharge. The last echocardiogram available showed a median EF of 59% (range, 49-73%). One-year survival of NIC patients was 94.1%.

CONCLUSION

Non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy is a rare complication after LT. Patients with NIC are critically ill, with high MELD score, and severe malnutrition.

Sudden Death and Chronic Alcoholism

Alcohol is a common factor in many deaths. Chronic alcoholics may die suddenly from trauma, intoxication, and from preexisting disease. In many cases, there is no obvious cause of death in chronic alcoholics following initial postmortem examination. Determining the cause of death in chronic alcoholics can be challenging. Such deaths in chronic alcoholics may be due to a number of mechanisms, including alcoholic ketoacidosis and disorders of cardiac rhythm. Alcoholic ketoacidosis has been recognized as a cause of death since the 1990s. It can be diagnosed by postmortem analysis of ketone bodies, including acetone and β-hydroxybutyrate. It has been recognized clinically that patients with alcoholic liver disease have prolongation of the QT interval and a risk of sudden death. This paper reviews sudden natural deaths in chronic alcoholics, discussing pathological processes and mechanisms of death, especially where the cause of death is not obvious on initial autopsy.

Liver transplantation in children with congenital cardiac defects: a case report and a short literature review

Advances in surgical techniques and follow-up of patients with complex congenital heart disease who were corrected in childhood increasingly survive to adolescence or adulthood. Increasingly anesthesiologists encounter these cases for major noncardiac surgery, including orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) wherein there is an augmented risk of significant perioperative hemodynamic instability. We performed a successful OLT in a 12-year-old boy with end-stage cryptogenetic liver fibrosis and hepatopulmonary syndrome who was born with a double outflow right ventricle, pulmonary atresia, and pulmonary artery hypoplasia corrected at the age of 1 month. By the time he was considered for OLT his altered pulmonary valve apparatus resulted in severe pulmonary regurgitation, dilated right atrium and ventricle, and elevated right heart pressures. After a temporarily successful angioplasty he was at first placed on the waiting list, then removed, and finally relisted following implantation of a prosthetic pulmonary valve that resulted in significant reduction of right heart pressures.

Interactions of the heart and the liver

There is a mutual interaction between the function of the heart and the liver and a broad spectrum of acute and chronic entities that affect both the heart and the liver. These can be classified into heart diseases affecting the liver, liver diseases affecting the heart, and conditions affecting the heart and the liver at the same time. In chronic and acute cardiac hepatopathy, owing to cardiac failure, a combination of reduced arterial perfusion and passive congestion leads to cardiac cirrhosis and cardiogenic hypoxic hepatitis. These conditions may impair the liver function and treatment should be directed towards the primary heart disease and seek to secure perfusion of vital organs. In patients with advanced cirrhosis, physical and/or pharmacological stress may reveal a reduced cardiac performance with systolic and diastolic dysfunction and electrophysical abnormalities termed cirrhotic cardiomyopathy. Electrophysiological abnormalities include prolonged QT interval, chronotropic incompetance, and electromechanical uncoupling. No specific therapy can be recommended, but it should be supportive and directed against the heart failure. Numerous conditions affect both the heart and the liver such as infections, inflammatory and systemic diseases, and chronic alcoholism. The risk and prevalence of coronary artery disease are increasing in cirrhotic patients and since the perioperative mortality is high, a careful cardiac evaluation of such patients is required prior to orthotopic liver transplantation.

Anesthesia for Liver Transplantation

Orthotopic liver transplantation is the only definitive treatment for end-stage liver disease. More than 6000 procedures are performed in the United States annually with excellent survival rates. The shortage of donor organs leads to continued interest in techniques to enlarge the potential donor pool. Patients presenting for liver transplant suffer from important cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, neurological, and gastroenterological comorbidity. In the Western world, liver failure is increasingly caused by steatohepatitis, and transplant candidates are thus becoming older and more comorbid. The role of the transplant anesthesiologist is highly important in the preoperative assessment, intraoperative management, and postoperative care of these complex and sick patients. Appropriate investigation and management of comorbidities such as coronary artery disease and portopulmonary hypertension is controversial and differs between programs. The transplant procedure is a major surgery, and although massive transfusion is no longer commonplace, there is potential for significant hemodynamic instability, coagulopathy, and metabolic disturbance. Liver transplant surgery can be divided into the preanhepatic phase, the anhepatic phase, and the reperfusion phase, with important anesthetic considerations at each point.  An understanding of the surgical techniques used for vascular exclusion of the liver and the role of venovenous bypass is crucial for the anesthesiologist. Recent trends in perioperative care include the use of antifibrinolytic drugs and point-of-care coagulation tests, intraoperative renal replacement therapy, and “fast-track” extubation and postoperative care. Care of patients with fulminant hepatic failure or those receiving split-liver grafts requires special consideration.

Diastolic dysfunction in patients with end-stage liver disease is associated with development of heart failure early after liver transplantation

BACKGROUND

Liver transplantation (LTx) is a life-saving treatment of end-stage liver disease. Cardiac complications including heart failure (HF) are among the leading causes of death after LTx.

THE AIM

The aim is to identify clinical and echocardiographic predictors of developing HF after LTx.

METHODS

Patients who underwent LTx at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) between January 2001 and January 2009 and had echocardiographic study before and within 6 months after transplantation were identified. Patients with coronary artery disease (>70% lesion) were excluded. HF after LTx was defined by clinical signs, symptoms, radiographic evidence of pulmonary congestion, and echocardiographic evidence of left ventricular dysfunction (left ventricle ejection fraction <50%).

RESULTS

Among 107 patients (presented as mean age [SD], 55 [10] years; male, 70%) who met the inclusion criteria, 26 (24%) patients developed HF after LTx. The pre-LTx left ventricle ejection fraction did not differ between the HF (69 [7]) and the control groups (69 [7] vs. 67 [6], P=0.30). However, pre-LTx elevation of early mitral inflow velocity/mitral annular velocity (P=0.02), increased left atrial volume index (P=0.05), and lower mean arterial pressure (P=0.03) were predictors of HF after LTx in multivariate analysis. Early mitral inflow velocity/mitral annular velocity greater than 10 and left atrial volume index 40 mL/m2 or more were associated with a 3.4-fold (confidence interval, 1.2-9.4; P=0.017) and 2.9-fold (confidence interval, 1.1-7.5; P=0.03) increase in risk of development of HF after LTx, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that elevated markers of diastolic dysfunction during pre-LTx echocardiographic evaluation are associated with an excess risk of HF and may predict post-LTx survival.

Anesthetic Considerations in Hepatectomies under Hepatic Vascular Control

Background. Hazards of liver surgery have been attenuated by the evolution in methods of hepatic vascular control and the anesthetic management. In this paper, the anesthetic considerations during hepatic vascular occlusion techniques were reviewed. Methods. A Medline literature search using the terms "anesthetic," "anesthesia," "liver," "hepatectomy," "inflow," "outflow occlusion," "Pringle," "hemodynamic," "air embolism," "blood loss," "transfusion," "ischemia-reperfusion," "preconditioning," was performed. Results. Task-orientated anesthetic management, according to the performed method of hepatic vascular occlusion, ameliorates the surgical outcome and improves the morbidity and mortality rates, following liver surgery. Conclusions. Hepatic vascular occlusion techniques share common anesthetic considerations in terms of preoperative assessment, monitoring, induction, and maintenance of anesthesia. On the other hand, the hemodynamic management, the prevention of vascular air embolism, blood transfusion, and liver injury are plausible when the anesthetic plan is scheduled according to the method of hepatic vascular occlusion performed.