Utilization of a flow chart for selection of candidates to liver transplantation

Abstract

Introduction: the liver transplantation actually is the treatment of choice for patients with advanced liver disease. Worldwide research has calculated the percentage of patients who need liver transplantation in 10 to 15%.

Aim: identification of patients who need liver transplantation and determination of the percentage of liver diseases with indication of transplantation between May 1998 and May 2000.

Methods: retrospective descriptive study. Information was collected from 146 clinical histories. A flow chart was applied to determine which patients were candidates to liver transplantation.

Results: 146 clinical histories of patients from Gastrohepatology and Liver Transplantation Group of the Hospital San Vicente de Paúl and Antioquia University were evaluated. 79 (54%) had diseases not related to liver, and 67 had liver disease. 52/67 (77,6%) despite a compromised liver were not candidate to transplantation. The remaining 15 patients (22.4%) fullfilled the criteria for liver transplantation. Of them, five patients were excluded because of relative (3) or absolute (2), contraindications. Ten patients (14,9%) fulfilled the criteria of the Gastrohepatology and Liver Transplantation Group.

Conclusion: 14,9% of patients who consulted the Antioquia University and Gastrohepatology and Liver Transplantation Group were candidates for liver transplantation. The percentual distribution of liver diseases in this group was: Non cholestasic cirrhosis 79%, cholestasic cirrhosis 7,5% and liver failure 13,5%.