Practical model to identify liver transplant recipients at low risk of postoperative haemorrhage, bile leakage and ascites

Lymphopenia at the time of transplant is associated with short-term mortality after deceased donor liver transplantation

Absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) is considered a surrogate marker for nutritional status and immunocompetence. We investigated the association between ALC and post-liver transplant outcomes in patients who received a deceased donor liver transplant (DDLT). Patients were categorized by ALC at liver transplant: low (<500/μL), mid (500-1000/μL), and high ALC (>1000/μL). Our main analysis used retrospective data (2013-2018) for DDLT recipients from Henry Ford Hospital (United States); the results were further validated using data from the Toronto General Hospital (Canada). Among 449 DDLT recipients, the low ALC group demonstrated higher 180-day mortality than mid and high ALC groups (83.1% vs 95.8% and 97.4%, respectively; low vs mid: P = .001; low vs high: P < .001). A larger proportion of patients with low ALC died of sepsis compared with the combined mid/high groups (9.1% vs 0.8%; P < .001). In multivariable analysis, pretransplant ALC was associated with 180-day mortality (hazard ratio, 0.20; P = .004). Patients with low ALC had higher rates of bacteremia (22.7% vs 8.1%; P < .001) and cytomegaloviremia (15.2% vs 6.8%; P = .03) than patients with mid/high ALC. Low ALC pretransplant through postoperative day 30 was associated with 180-day mortality among patients who received rabbit antithymocyte globulin induction (P = .001). Pretransplant lymphopenia is associated with short-term mortality and a higher incidence of posttransplant infections in DDLT patients.

Embedding evidence of early postoperative off-bed activities and rehabilitation in a real clinical setting in China: an interrupted time-series study

Background

Patients should be encouraged to mobilize with 24 h of caesarean section. However, the time of the first off-bed activity after surgery is usually 24 ~ 48 h in China. Due to the lack of knowledge of early off-bed activities, lack of attention to medical pain, and the absence of systematic evidence for the clinical transformation process. the aim of this study was showed that the application of evidence needs to be embedding in the real setting to construct the localization plan and achieve the effective result.

Methods

To establish evidence of the benefits of early postoperative off-bed activities on patients’ well-being based on a literature review. An interrupted time series analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The first and third periods were both five months (from February 1st, 2019 to January 31st, 2020), with a two-month interrupted time (from July 1st, 2019 to August 31st, 2019).

Results

Eight clinical practices were retrieved from the literature and incorporated into the intervention. A total of 465 patients were included: 226 patients before and 239 patients after implementing the intervention. The average onset time of postoperative off-bed activities was significantly earlier after the intervention than before the intervention (20.01 vs. 31.89 h after the operation, P < 0.001). The 24-h off-bed rate increased from 30.94% before to 91.21% after the intervention (P < 0.001). The average pain score of patients decreased from 5.23 points before to 3.82 points after the intervention (P = 0.032). The average postoperative hospital stay was shortened from 5.06 days before to 3.51 days after the intervention (P < 0.001). In addition, the incidence rates of postoperative ileus (POI) and infection decreased from 5.38% and 2.65% before to 1.67% and 0.84% after the intervention, respectively (P < 0.001).

Conclusions

We established an evidence-based nursing intervention. Evaluation of the effect of evidence-based practices should be considered in the clinical setting and include preoperative health education, effective analgesia management, and safety management.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-022-00883-5.