Background: Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) accounts for 10–15% of liver transplants but is the leading cause of retransplant. This study evaluates whether PSC patients have different survival and graft outcomes when receiving grafts from donors after brain death (DBD) versus circulatory (DCD) death. Methods: Using the SRTR database (2004–2024), we compared PSC patients receiving DCD vs. DBD grafts. Demographics and outcomes including graft loss, mortality, and retransplant were analyzed using multivariable logistic and Cox regression, along with propensity-matched analysis. Results: Among 5762 PSC patients, 391 (6.8%) received DCD grafts. Patients receiving DCD grafts were older but had lower MELD scores (19 vs. 22; p < 0.001) and were less often functionally dependent (11.3% vs. 24.4%; p < 0.001). Multivariable Cox regression demonstrated that receipt of a DCD graft was independently associated with time to graft loss (HR 1.59; CI 1.10–2.31; p = 0.013. Similarly, DCD graft receipt significantly increased the likelihood of requiring retransplant (HR 3.25; CI: 1.93–5.46; p < 0.001) but did not increase the likelihood of mortality. Propensity matched analysis further supported these finding with significantly higher graft loss with DCD grafts at one and two years and higher retransplant rates at all time points including 5-years (+7.9%, CI 4.4 to 11.4%; p < 0.001). Conclusions: DCD grafts in PSC patients are linked to worse graft survival and higher retransplant rates. They may be best suited for older, lower-MELD patients, but further studies on perfusion strategies are needed.
Verhoeff et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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