When Is Intensive Care Treatment Futile in Patients with Organ Failure and End-Stage Liver Disease?

The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) was originally created to predict survival following transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt and was subsequently found to accurately predict mortality in patients with end-stage liver disease. It has been used in the United States for liver allocation since 2002, and implementation of the MELD score resulted in a reduction in total number of deaths on the waitlist and a reduction in waiting time. Critically ill cirrhotic patients have an in-hospital mortality greater than 50%. Although the MELD score was also found to be an accurate predictor of in-ICU mortality and in-hospital mortality after ICU admission in critically ill cirrhotic patients, the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score appears to perform better in many studies. The Chronic Liver Failure Consortium Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure (CLIF-C ACLF) score was later developed by using specific cut-points for each organ failure score system in CLIF patients to predict mortality in patients with ACLF. Neither the MELD nor SOFA score independently predicts post-liver transplantation mortality in cirrhotic patients with extrahepatic organ failure and should not be use as a delisting criterion for these patients. More data are needed to determine the accuracy of the CLIF-C ACLF score in predicting post-liver transplantation outcomes. Prospective evaluation of critically ill cirrhotic patients is needed to optimize liver organ allocation.

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THE COST OF ADULT LIVER TRANSPLANTATION IN A REFERRAL CENTER IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Arquivos de Gastroenterologia ◽

10.1590/s0004-2803.201900000-33 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 165-171 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Adriane B de SOUZA ◽

Santiago RODRIGUEZ ◽

Fábio Luís da MOTTA ◽

Ajacio B de Mello BRANDÃO ◽

Claudio Augusto MARRONI

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Liver Transplantation ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Liver Disease ◽

Southern Brazil ◽

Referral Center ◽

End Stage Liver Disease ◽

End Stage ◽

The Cost ◽

Surgical Unit

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Liver transplantation (LTx) is the primary and definitive treatment of acute or chronic cases of advanced or end-stage liver disease. Few studies have assessed the actual cost of LTx categorized by hospital unit. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost of LTx categorized by unit specialty within a referral center in southern Brazil. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 109 patients undergoing LTx between April 2013 and December 2014. Data were collected on demographic characteristics, etiology of liver disease, and severity of liver disease according to the Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) and Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) scores at the time of LTx. The hospital bill was transformed into cost using the full absorption costing method, and the costs were grouped into five categories: Immediate Pretransplant Kit; Specialized Units; Surgical Unit; Intensive Care Unit; and Inpatient Unit. RESULTS: The mean total LTx cost was US$ 17,367. Surgical Unit, Specialized Units, and Intensive Care Unit accounted for 31.9%, 26.4% and 25.3% of the costs, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that total LTx cost was significantly associated with CTP class C (P=0.001) and occurrence of complications (P=0.002). The following complications contributed to significantly increase the total LTx cost: septic shock (P=0.006), massive blood transfusion (P=0.007), and acute renal failure associated with renal replacement therapy (dialysis) (P=0.005). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that the total cost of LTx is closely related to liver disease severity scores and the development of complications.

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