Journal List > J Korean Soc Transplant > v.25(4) > 1034352

Cho, Dong, Kim, Yong, Huh, Gi, Jin, and Soon: Impact of Early Positive Culture Results on the Short-term Outcomes of Liver Transplants

Abstract

Background

Infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality following liver transplants. We evaluated the risk factors of mortality within 1 month of liver transplantation caused by post-transplant infections.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 199 patients who underwent liver transplants from September 2005 to August 2010. We divided the enrolled patients into 3 groups. The first group, the Culture(-) group, was defined as those who had no significant culture results. The second group, the Culture(+)/survival group, was defined as those who tested positive for culture but survived longer than 1 month after transplantation. The third group, the Culture(+)/mortality group, was defined as those who died within 1 month of the transplant with positive culture test results.

Results

The culture(+)/mortality group consisted of more deceased donor liver transplants than other groups. Also, the Culture(+)/mortality group showed more evidence of pre-transplant infections, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, continuous post-transplant renal replacement therapy (CRRT), and a higher MELD score than other groups. The risk factors of early mortality combined with infection 1 month after liver transplantation are hospitalization in ICU before transplantation (HR=16.3, CI=2.6∼102.3, P=0.003) and the positive results of culture within 7 days of the operation (HR=38.7, CI=4.1∼368.8, P=0.001).

Conclusions

Hospitalization in ICU before transplantation and an early positive culture result can be an early clinical indicator of a good prognosis after liver transplantation.

References

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Fig. 1.
Sites and organisms of positive culture results within 7 days after liver transplantation. (A) Positive culture results of each sample. (B) Organism distribution of positive culture results.
jkstn-25-257f1.tif
Fig. 2.
Organism distribution according to the culture site (n=60, data were duplicately included).
jkstn-25-257f2.tif
Table 1.
Clinical characteristics associated with significantly positive result of culture within 7 days after transplantation
Characteristics No growth or non-significant result (n=139) Significantly positive results (n=60) P-value
Donor type (deceasedonor, %) 27.7 46.8 0.010
High MELD score (≥20, %) 17.7 58.1 <0.001
Pretransplant infection evidence (%) 5.0 25.8 <0.001
Pretransplant ICU admission (%) 6.4 27.4 <0.001
Pretransplant CRRT (%) 2.1 25.8 <0.001
Intraoperative RBC 39.7 74.2 <0.001
transfusion (≥6 units, %)      
Posttransplant CRRT (%) 13.5 56.5 <0.001
Reoperation d/t bleeding (%) 0.7 5.0 0.083

Abbreviations: MELD, model for end stage liver disease; ICU, intensive care unit; CRRT, continuous renal replacement therapy; RBC, red blood cell.

Table 2.
Comparison of pre, intra, and postoperative clinical characteristics between three groups
Characteristics Culture (-) (n=114) Culture (+)/survival (n=64) Culture (+)/mortality (n=21) P-value
Age (year) 51.8±8.6 50.7±8.6 45.9±10.8 0.019
Sex (M: F) 89:25 46:18 17:4 0.607
Donor type, living: deceased (deceased donor, %) 84:30 (26.3%) 41:23 (35.9%) 7:14 (66.7%) 0.002
MELD score 14.0±7.5 19.8±10.0 30.6±10.0 <0.001
Pretransplant infection evidence 7 (6.1%) 15 (23.4%) 14 (66.7%) <0.001
Pretransplant ICU admission 6 (5.3%) 5 (7.8%) 14 (66.7%) <0.001
Operation time (hours) 11.3±2.3 11.4±2.4 11.0±2.4 0.799
Intraoperative RBC transfusion (units) 6.6±7.4 9.5±9.4 22.8±21.8 <0.001
Posttransplant CRRT 10 (8.8%) 24 (37.5%) 17 (81.0%) <0.001
Significantly positive result of culture within 7 days after transplantation 0 (0.0%) 40 (62.5%) 20 (95.2%) <0.001

Abbreviations: see Table 1.

Table 3.
Relation between the culture results of each sample and positive culture related mortality (data were overlaped)
Characteristics s Culture (-) or culture (+)/ survival (n=178) Culture (+)/ mortality (n=21) )P-value
Positive blood culture 8 (4.5%) 13 (61.9%) < <0.001
Positive urine culture 8 (4.5%) 5 (23.8%) 0.006
Positive sputum culture 19 (10.7%) 7 (33.3%) 0.010
Positive peritoneal fluid culture 8 (4.5%) 1 (4.8%) 0.641
Table 4.
Risk factor analysis of posttransplant mortality combined with infection within 1 month by logistic regression analysis
Values P-value Hazard ratio 95% CI
Upper Lower
Donor type, deceased donor 0.897 1.102 0.254 4.771
High MELD score (≥20) 0.730 0.620 0.041 9.353
Pretransplant Infection evidence 0.785 1.309 0.190 9.037
Post-transplant CRRT 0.585 1.621 0.286 9.184
Pretransplant ICU admission 0.003 16.324 2.605 102.284
Intraoperative RBC transfusion 0.549 1.731 0.288 10.406
(≥6 units)        
Significantly positive result of 0.001 38.729 4.067 368.788
culture within 7 days after        
transplantation        

Abbreviations: see Table 1.

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