Intraoperative terlipressin therapy reduces the incidence of postoperative acute kidney injury after living donor liver transplantation.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of intraoperative infusion with terlipressin on the incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).

Design: Retrospective case-controlled study.

Setting: Government hospital.

Participants: The medical records of 303 patients who underwent LDLT were reviewed retrospectively.

Interventions: Patients were divided into 2 groups on the basis of intraoperative administration of terlipressin. The primary outcome was AKI, as defined by the Acute Kidney Injury Network criteria. Secondary outcomes included the requirement for postoperative dialysis and in-hospital mortality.

Measurements And Main Results: The incidence of AKI was 38% (n = 115); AKI occurred in 24 (24.2%) patients who received terlipressin versus 91 (44.6%) in the control group (p = 0.001). The incidence of postoperative dialysis was 9.2% (n = 28). Postoperative dialysis was needed by 8 patients (8.1%) in the terlipressin group versus 20 patients (9.8%) in the control group (p = 0.62). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that terlipressin protected against AKI (odds ratio [OR], 0.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.2-0.8; p = 0.013) but not the need for dialysis (OR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.2-2.2; p = 0.53) or the in-hospital mortality (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.5-2.3; p = 0.7). Adjustment, using the propensity score, did not alter the association between the use of terlipressin and AKI reduction (OR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.22-0.89; p = 0.03).

Conclusion: These results suggested that intraoperative terlipressin therapy is associated with significant reductions in the risk of AKI in LDLT patients.