Clinical outcomes after transplantation of domino grafts or standard deceased donor livers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Domino liver transplantation (DLT) utilizes otherwise discarded livers as donor grafts for another recipients. It is unclear whether DLT has less favorable outcomes compared to deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT). We aimed to assess the outcomes of DLT compared to DDLT.

METHODS

MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science database were searched to identify studies comparing outcomes after DLT with DDLT. Data were pooled using random-effects modeling, evaluating odds ratios (OR) or mean difference (MD) for outcomes including waiting list time, severe hemorrhage, intensive care unit (ICU), length hospital stay (LOS), rejection, renal, vascular, and biliary events, and recipient survival at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years.

RESULTS

Five studies were identified including 945 patients (DLT = 409, DDLT = 536). The DLT recipients were older compared to the DDLT group (P = 0.04), and both cohorts were comparable regarding lab MELD, hepatocellular carcinoma, and waitlist time. There were no differences in vascular (OR: 1.60, P = 0.39), renal (OR: 0.62, P = 0.24), biliary (OR: 1.51, P = 0.21), severe hemorrhage (OR: 1.09, P = 0.86), rejection (OR: 0.78, P = 0.51), ICU stay (MD: 0.50, P = 0.21), or LOS (MD: 1.68, P = 0.46) between DLT and DDLT. DLT and DDLT were associated with comparable 1-year (78.9% vs 80.4%; OR: 1.03, P = 0.89), 3-year (56.2% vs 54.1%; OR: 1.35, P = 0.07), and 10-year survival (6.5% vs 8.5%; OR: 0.8, P = 0.67) rates. DLT was associated with higher 5-year survival (41.6% vs 36.4%; OR: 1.70; P = 0.003) compared to DDLT, which was not confirmed at sensitivity analysis.

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis of the best available evidence (Level 2a) demonstrated that DLT and DDLT have comparable outcomes. As indications for liver transplantation expand, future high-quality research is encouraged to increase the DLT numbers in clinical practice, serving the growing waiting list candidates, with the caveat of uncertain de novo disease transmission risks.

Differences between living and deceased donation in human uterus transplantation: A narrative review

The decision to use a living or deceased donor to perform uterus transplantation (UTx) is an evaluation of benefit and harm and is based on the medical team's choices. The current study determines the differences between living and deceased donation in human UTx according to determinant factors in choosing the donor type. For this review study, the PubMed database was searched without time, language, and location limitations up to May 2022. From 113 identified articles, 45 papers were included in the study for review. According to the results, in comparison to living donation, the biggest advantage of deceased donation is the lack of surgical and or psychological risks for the donor. In contrast, a comprehensive pre-transplantation medical assessment is less possible in deceased donation, and preplanned surgery cannot be realized. According to published peer-reviewed clinical trials on UTx, the graft failure rates in living and deceased donor UTx are 21% and 36%, respectively. Supposing all recipients who did not have graft failure underwent embryo transfer, live birth rates in living and deceased donor UTx procedures are almost 63% and 71%, respectively. Currently, considering the occurrence of live births from both donations, particularly from nulliparous deceased donor, increased demand for UTx in the near future, shortage of uterus grafts, and lack of sufficient data for a comprehensive comparison between the 2 types of donation, the use of both donations still seems necessary and rational.

Expanding the living liver donor pool in countries having limited deceased donor activity: Pakistani perspective

Over the last decades, liver transplantation (LT) has evolved into a life-saving procedure. Due to limited deceased donor activities in the eastern world, living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) had flourished tremendously in most Asian countries. Yet, these LDLT activities fall short of meeting the expected demands. Pakistan, a developing country, bears a major burden of liver diseases. Currently, only few centers offer LDLT services in the country. On the other hand, deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) activities have not started due to social, cultural, and religious beliefs. Various strategies can be adopted successfully to overcome the scarcity of live liver donors (LLDs) and to expand the donor pool, keeping in view donor safety and recipient outcome. These include consideration of LLDs with underlying clinical conditions like G6PD deficiency and Hepatitis B core positivity. Extended donor criteria can also be utilized and relaxation can be made in various donors' parameters including upper age and body mass index after approval from the multidisciplinary board. Also, left lobe grafts, grafts with various anatomical variations, and a low graft-to-recipient ratio can be considered in appropriate situations. ABO-incompatible LT and donor swapping at times may help in expanding the LLDs pool. Similarly, legislation is needed to allow live non-blood-related donors for organ donations. Finally, community education and awareness through various social media flat forms are needed to promote deceased organ donation.

Robot-assisted kidney transplantation: Is it getting ready for prime time?

Kidney transplantation (KT) is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage renal disease, providing a better survival rate and quality of life compared to dialysis. Despite the progress in the medical management of KT patients, from a purely surgical standpoint, KT has resisted innovations during the last 50 years. Recently, robot-assisted KT (RAKT) has been proposed as an alternative approach to open surgery, especially due to its potential benefits for fragile and immunocompromised recipients. It was not until 2014 that the role of RAKT has found value thanks to the pioneering Vattikuti Urology Institute-Medanta collaboration that conceptualized and developed a new surgical technique for RAKT following the Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment, Long-term follow-up recommendations for introducing surgical innovations into real-life practice. During the last years, mirroring the Vattikuti-Medanta technique, several centers developed RAKT program worldwide, providing strong evidence about the safety and the feasibility of this procedure. However, the majority of RAKT are still performed in the living donor setting, as an “eligible” procedure, while only a few centers have realized KT through a robotic approach in the challenging scenario of cadaver donation. In addition, despite the spread of minimally-invasive (predominantly robotic) surgery worldwide, many KTs are still performed in an open fashion. Regardless of the type of incision employed by surgeons, open KT may lead to non-negligible risks of wound complications, especially among obese patients. Particularly, the assessment for KT should consider not only the added surgical technical challenges but also the higher risk of postoperative complications. In this context, robotic surgery could offer several benefits, including providing a better exposure of the surgical field and better instrument maneuverability, as well as the possibility to integrate other technological nuances, such as the use of intraoperative fluorescence vascular imaging with indocyanine green to assess the ureteral vascularization before the uretero-vesical anastomosis. Therefore, our review aims to report the more significant experiences regarding RAKT, focusing on the results and future perspectives.

Non-invasive real-time assessment of hepatic macrovesicular steatosis in liver donors: Hypothesis, design and proof-of-concept study

Macrovesicular Steatosis (MS) is an independent risk factor for adverse post-liver transplant (LT) outcomes. The degree of MS is intimately related to the viability of the liver graft, which in turn is crucial to the success of the operation. An ideal liver graft should have no MS and most centres would find it unacceptable to use a donor liver with severe MS for LT. While a formal liver biopsy is the gold-standard diagnostic test for MS, given the logistical and time constraints it is not universally feasible. Other tests like a frozen section biopsy are plagued by issues of fallibility with reporting and sampling bias making them inferior to a liver biopsy. Hence, the development of an accurate, non-invasive, easy-to-use, handheld, real-time device for quantification of MS would fill this lacuna in the deceased donor selection process. We present the hypothesis, design and proof-of-concept of a study, which aims to standardise and determine the feasibility and accuracy of a novel handheld device applying the principle of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for real-time quantification of MS.

Use of Organs from SARS-CoV-2 Infected Donors: Is It Safe? A Contemporary Review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

As the prevalence of individuals with recovered coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increases, determining if and when organs from these donors can be safely used is an important priority. We examined current knowledge of outcomes of transplant using donors with recovered COVID-19.

RECENT FINDINGS

A literature search of PubMed and Google scholar databases was conducted to identify articles with terms "SARS-CoV2," "COVID-19," "donor recovered," and "transplantation" published through 08/10/2021. We identified 25 reports detailing 94 recipients of both abdominal and thoracic transplants from donors with both prior and active COVID-19 infection. Rates of transmission to the recipient and of transplanted organ dysfunction were low among reports of donors with prior COVID-19 infection. End organ dysfunction and transmission were more common with active infection, although few reports are available. Standardized reporting is needed to better assess the impact of donor symptomatology, cycle thresholds, and individual recipient risk factors on postoperative outcomes.

SUMMARY

Available reports suggest that transplantation from COVID-19 donors may be feasible and safe, at least in short term follow-up. Nevertheless, there is a need for standardized testing and management protocols which should be tailored for available resources. While increased availability of COVID-19 vaccinations will mitigate risks of donor-derived COVID-19 and simplify management, continued vigilance is warranted during the ongoing public health emergency.

Standard liver weight model in adult deceased donors with fatty liver: A prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Standard liver weight (SLW) is frequently used in deceased donor liver transplantation to avoid size mismatches with the recipient. However, some deceased donors (DDs) have fatty liver (FL). A few studies have reported that FL could impact liver size. To the best of our knowledge, there are no relevant SLW models for predicting liver size.

AIM

To demonstrate the relationship between FL and total liver weight (TLW) in detail and present a related SLW formula.

METHODS

We prospectively enrolled 212 adult DDs from West China Hospital of Sichuan University from June 2019 to February 2021, recorded their basic information, such as sex, age, body height (BH) and body weight (BW), and performed abdominal ultrasound (US) and pathological biopsy (PB). The chi-square test and kappa consistency score were used to assess the consistency in terms of FL diagnosed by US relative to PB. Simple linear regression analysis was used to explore the variables related to TLW. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to formulate SLW models, and the root mean standard error and interclass correlation coefficient were used to test the fitting efficiency and accuracy of the model, respectively. Furthermore, the optimal formula was compared with previous formulas.

RESULTS

Approximately 28.8% of DDs had FL. US had a high diagnostic ability (sensitivity and specificity were 86.2% and 92.9%, respectively; kappa value was 0.70, P < 0.001) for livers with more than a 5% fatty change. Simple linear regression analysis showed that sex (R², 0.226; P < 0.001), BH (R², 0.241; P < 0.001), BW (R², 0.441; P < 0.001), BMI (R², 0.224; P < 0.001), BSA (R², 0.454; P < 0.001) and FL (R², 0.130; P < 0.001) significantly impacted TLW. In addition, multiple linear regression analysis showed that there was no significant difference in liver weight between the DDs with no steatosis and those with steatosis within 5%. Furthermore, in the context of hepatic steatosis, TLW increased positively (non-linear); compared with the TLW of the non-FL group, the TLW of the groups with hepatic steatosis within 5%, between 5% and 20% and more than 20% increased by 0 g, 90 g, and 340 g, respectively. A novel formula, namely, -348.6 + (110.7 x Sex [0 = Female, 1 = Male]) + 958.0 x BSA + (179.8 x FL_US [0 = No, 1 = Yes]), where FL was diagnosed by US, was more convenient and accurate than any other formula for predicting SLW.

CONCLUSION

FL is positively correlated with TLW. The novel formula deduced using sex, BSA and FL_US is the optimal formula for predicting SLW in adult DDs.

Does HLA matching matter in the modern era of renal transplantation?

Children with end-stage kidney disease should be offered the best chance for future survival which ideally would be a well-matched pre-emptive kidney transplant. Paediatric and adult practice varies around the world depending on geography, transplant allocation schemes and different emphases on living (versus deceased) donor renal transplantation. Internationally, paediatric patients often have priority in allocation schemes and younger donors are preferentially allocated to paediatric recipients. HLA matching can be difficult and may result in longer waiting times. Additionally, with improved surgical techniques and modern immunosuppressive regimens, how important is the contribution of HLA matching to graft longevity? In this review, we discuss the relative importance of HLA matching compared with donor quality; and long-term patient outcomes including re-transplantation rates. We share empirical evidence that will be useful for clinicians and families to make decisions about best donor options. We discuss why living donation still provides the best allograft survival outcomes and what to do in the scenario of a highly mismatched living donor.

Diagnosis of morbid obesity may not impact healthcare utilization for orthotopic liver transplantation: A propensity matched study

AIM

To study mortality, length of stay, and total charges in morbidly obese adults during index hospitalization for orthotopic liver transplantation.

METHODS

The Nationwide Inpatient Sample was queried to obtain demographics, healthcare utilization, post orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) complications, and short term outcomes of OLT performed from 2003 to 2011 (n = 46509). We divided patients into those with [body mass index (BMI) ≥ 40] and without (BMI < 40) morbid obesity. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to characterize differences in in-hospital mortality, length of stay (LOS), and charges for OLT between patients with and without morbid obesity after adjusting for significant confounders. Additionally, propensity matching was performed to further validate the results.

RESULTS

Of the 46509 patients who underwent OLT during the study period, 818 (1.8%) were morbidly obese. Morbidly obese recipients were more likely to be female (46.8% vs 33.4%, P = 0.002), Caucasian (75.2% vs 67.8%, P = 0.002), in the low national income quartile (32.3% vs 22.5%, P = 0.04), and have ≥ 3 comorbidities (modified Elixhauser index; 83.9% vs 45.0%, P < 0.001). Morbidly obese patient also had an increase in procedure related hemorrhage (P = 0.028) and respiratory complications (P = 0.043). Multivariate and propensity matched analysis showed no difference in mortality (OR: 0.70; 95%CI: 0.27-1.84, P = 0.47), LOS (β: -4.44; 95%CI: -9.93, 1.05, P = 0.11) and charges for transplantation (β: $15693; 95%CI: -51622-83008, P = 0.64) between the two groups. Morbidly obese patients were more likely to have transplants on weekdays (81.7%) as compared to those without morbid obesity (75.4%, P = 0.029).

CONCLUSION

Morbid obesity may not impact in-hospital mortality and health care utilization in OLT recipients. However, morbidly obese patients may be selected after careful assessment of co-morbidities.

Risk factors and outcomes of delayed graft function in renal transplant recipients receiving a steroid sparing immunosuppression protocol

AIM

To analyse the risk factors and outcomes of delayed graft function (DGF) in patients receiving a steroid sparing protocol.

METHODS

Four hundred and twenty-seven recipients of deceased donor kidney transplants were studied of which 135 (31.6%) experienced DGF. All patients received monoclonal antibody induction with a tacrolimus based, steroid sparing immunosuppression protocol.

RESULTS

Five year patient survival was 87.2% and 94.9% in the DGF and primary graft function (PGF) group respectively, P = 0.047. Allograft survival was 77.9% and 90.2% in the DGF and PGF group respectively, P < 0.001. Overall rejection free survival was no different between the DGF and PGF groups with a 1 and 5 year rejection free survival in the DGF group of 77.7% and 67.8% compared with 81.3% and 75.3% in the PGF group, P = 0.19. Patients with DGF who received IL2 receptor antibody induction were at significantly higher risk of rejection in the early post-transplant period than the group with DGF who received alemtuzumab induction. On multivariate analysis, risk factors for DGF were male recipients, recipients of black ethnicity, circulatory death donation, preformed DSA, increasing cold ischaemic time, older donor age and dialysis vintage.

CONCLUSION

Alemtuzumab induction may be of benefit in preventing early rejection episodes associated with DGF. Prospective trials are required to determine optimal immunotherapy protocols for patients at high risk of DGF.