Primary care management of the liver transplant patient

An Essential Guide for Managing Post-Liver Transplant Patients: What Primary Care Physicians Should Know

With long-term survival after liver transplantation becoming the rule, care for medical problems arising over time in liver-transplanted patients gained increasing importance. The most common causes of death occurring more than 1 year after liver transplantation are unrelated to liver diseases and facilitated by immunosuppressive treatments; examples are malignancies, renal failure, and cardiovascular, metabolic, and infectious diseases. Recipients receive life-long follow-up care at transplant centers, however, the increasing number of liver-transplanted patients is saturating the health care supply that transplant centers have to offer. Primary care physicians are increasingly exposed to liver-transplanted patients, even in the early periods after transplant, and an understanding of the most common risks and complications faced by these patients would enhance their care. This article reviews the long-term care of liver transplant recipients, emphasizing the key internal medicine-related issues that should be known by primary care physicians. A specific section is devoted to implementing strategies to involve these physicians in the long-term follow-up of liver-transplanted patients in close collaboration with transplant hepatologists.

Clinical significance of personalized tacrolimus dosing by adjusting to donor CYP3A-status in liver transplant recipients

Donor's CYP3A-status (CYP3A5 genotype and CYP3A4 expression) can provide prognostic information regarding tacrolimus-metabolizing capacity of the liver graft and initial tacrolimus dosing for therapeutic blood concentrations in liver transplants. The present work prospectively investigated whether CYP3A-status guided tacrolimus therapy has any potential clinical benefit for recipients in the early postoperative period.

METHODS

The contribution of preliminary assaying of donor CYP3A-status to the optimization of initial tacrolimus therapy and to the reduction of adverse events (acute rejection, infection, nephrotoxicity) was investigated in 112 liver transplant recipients (CYPtest group) comparing to 101 control patients on tacrolimus concentration guided therapy.

RESULTS

The time for achieving therapeutic tacrolimus concentration was significantly reduced, confirming potential benefit of initial tacrolimus therapy adjusted to donor's CYP3A-status over classical clinical practice of tacrolimus concentration guided treatment (4 vs 8 days, P < 0.0001). Acute rejection episodes (3.6 vs 23.8%, P < 0.0001) and tacrolimus induced nephrotoxicity (8 vs 27%, P = 0.0004) were less frequent in CYPtest group than in control patients, whereas occurrence of infectious disease was not influenced by tacrolimus dosing strategy (3.6 vs 5.9% in CYPtest and control groups, P > 0.05). Acute rejection was often accompanied with tacrolimus blood concentrations lower than 10 ng mL^-1 (20/24 of control and 2/4 of CYPtest patients), while nephrotoxicity was associated with high tacrolimus concentrations (>20 ng mL^-1 ) in the first week after transplantation (13/27 of control and 2/9 of CYPtest patients).

CONCLUSION

CYP3A-status guided therapy significantly improved the risk of misdosing induced early adverse effects (acute rejection, nephrotoxicity).

Alta hospitalar do paciente transplantado hepático: revisão integrativa

Resumo Objetivo Analisar evidências disponíveis na literatura capazes de subsidiar o planejamento da alta hospitalar do paciente submetido ao transplante hepático. Método Revisão integrativa a partir das bases Scopus, LILACS, SciELO, MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, BDENF, Web of Science. Utilizou-se os descritores Transplante hepático e Alta hospitalar, em inglês, espanhol e português, identificando-se 1.152 artigos, sendo que a amostra foi composta por 13 artigos. Resultados As publicações concentram-se entre 2014 (n=4; 30,7%) e 2016 (n=3; 23%), tendo como origem o Brasil (n=5; 38,4%) e os Estados Unidos (n=3; 23%). Os resultados foram organizados nas categorias: Sinais de alerta para possíveis alterações que possam surgir no domicílio; Recomendações para o uso de medicamentos-promoção do autogerenciamento e adesão ao tratamento; Atividades e cuidados diários em domicílio – apoio e autoconfiança; Mudanças na imagem corporal e vida diária – importância da rede de apoio. Conclusão A alta hospitalar do paciente submetido ao transplante hepático é um desafio, visto a complexidade do procedimento. Os achados apresentam cuidados direcionados à educação em saúde no sentido de minimizar complicações, apoiar a equipe multiprofissional e o paciente no autocuidado, em especial quanto aos sinais e sintomas de complicações, cuidados com o uso de medicação e as mudanças que ocorrem no retorno ao domicílio.