Early acute kidney injury after liver transplantation: Predisposing factors and clinical implications

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

AIM: To investigate the additional clinical impact of hepatic ischaemia reperfusion injury (HIRI) on patients sustaining acute kidney injury (AKI) following liver transplantation. METHODS: This was a single-centre retrospective study of consecutive adult patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) between January 2013 and June 2014. Early AKI was identified by measuring serum creatinine at 24 h post OLT (> 1.5 × baseline) or by the use of continuous veno-venous haemofiltration (CVVHF) during the early post-operative period. Patients with and without AKI were compared to identify risk factors associated with this complication. Peak serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) within 24 h post-OLT was used as a surrogate marker for HIRI and severity was classified as minor (< 1000 IU/L), moderate (1000-5000 IU/L) or severe (> 5000 IU/L). The impact on time to extubation, intensive care length of stay, incidence of chronic renal failure and 90-d mortality were examined firstly for each of the two complications (AKI and HIRI) alone and then as a combined outcome. CONCLUSION: HIRI has an important role in the development of AKI post-OLT and has a negative impact on patient outcomes, especially when occurring alongside AKI.