Obesity portends increased morbidity and earlier recurrence following liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Obesity has been associated with poor oncologic outcomes following pancreatoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer. However, there is a paucity of evidence on the impact of obesity on postoperative complications, oncologic outcome and survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT).

Methods: From a database of over 1000 patients who underwent OLT during 1996-2008, 159 patients with a diagnosis of HCC were identified.