Beneficial effect of intra-operative methylprednisolone on immediate post liver transplant intensive care course.

Background: Concern about the effect of corticosteroids on outcomes following liver transplantation (LT), especially in recipients with hepatitis C infection (HCV) has lead many centres to abandon the use of perioperative steroids. Avoidance of corticosteroids in immunosuppressive regimens may have beneficial effects in terms of reducing the incidence of infection, new onset diabetes mellitus and HCV recurrence however perioperative use may have beneficial effects such as attenuation of ischaemia-reperfusion injury (IR) and treatment of underlying adrenal insufficiency (AI). Due to a high prevalence of adrenal insufficiency in patients on our waiting list for LT, we reintroduced the use of intraoperative methyl-prednisolone and hypothesised that this would improve early post operative outcome.