Infection after orthotopic liver transplantation: analysis of the first 120 consecutive cases

Objective. To report the infectious complications and presentation time of the first 120 consecutive liver transplants performed at our institution. Methods. Prospective study of infectious complications among 120 consecutiv e adult patients who received orthotopic liver transplantation at Hospital de Cruces, from February 1996 to November 1998. Two patients received a ren al transplant concomitantly. The same surveillance protocols were used for all patients and the criteria used to define infections were those reported by other authors. Results. The group consisted of 120 patients, 95 males and 25 females. The age ranged from 20 and 66; years (mean: 54 +/- 9 years). The indications fo r transplantation included alcoholic cirrhosis (47%), HCV cirrhosis (20%), hepatocellular carcinoma (17.5%), fulminant hepatitis (6%), primary biliary cirrhosis (2.5%) and miscellaneous conditions (7%). Three patients require d retransplantation. Acute rejection was histologically diagnosed in 38 pat ients (31%). None of the patients had corticosteroid-resistant rejection. F ifty-one patients (42.5%) developed 76 episodes of severe infection, which included: 48 episodes of bacterial infection among 33 patients (27.5%), tub erculosis in 7 patients (6%), 9 episodes of fungal infection among 8 patien ts (7%) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection among 8.5% of patients. No pati ent developed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Fifteen (12.5%) patients died : six (12.5%) with active infection, and in four of them the infection was considered the cause of death. Conclusions. Infection rates due to bacteria and fungi were similar to thos e reported in the literature. A high rate of tuberculosis was found, which possible correlated with the high incidence of this disease in the general population. The low incidence of CMV infection was probably due to the pree mptive therapy with gancyclovir. Trimethoprimsulfamethoxazol prophylaxis ag ainst Pneumocystis carinii was highly effective.