Postoperative Myocardial Injury Does Not Predict Early and 1-Year Mortality After Living Donor Liver Transplantation.

Background: Preoperative cardiac troponin-I (cTnI) elevation has been shown to be a predictor of mortality after liver transplantation. Myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS) has been defined as elevation of serum cardiac troponin levels in the perioperative period that does not fulfill the criteria for myocardial infarction. MINS has been shown to be a prognostic factor for in-hospital and long-term mortality, but there is limited data in patients undergoing living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between MINS and postoperative mortality.

Material And Methods: Patients who had undergone adult LDLT at Florence Nightingale Hospital Liver Transplantation Unit between December 2012 and December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed for 30-day in-hospital and 1-year mortality. Myocardial injury was defined as cTnI level above 0.04 ng/mL. Patients (N = 214) were divided into 2 groups according to postoperative cTnI levels. The following were the exclusion criteria: 1. patients under 18 years old, 2. patients undergoing deceased-donor liver transplantation or dual liver-kidney transplantation, 3. cTnI elevation due to other causes (sepsis, renal failure, pulmonary embolism, myocardial infarction), and 4. patients without postoperative troponin levels.

Results: MINS occurred in 123 (57.4%) patients after LDLT. There was no difference between the groups according to age, sex, creatinine levels, presence of ischemic heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and tobacco use. The presence of MINS did not predict 30-day and 1-year mortality in the study population.

Conclusion: Myocardial injury detected by serum cTnI elevation was frequent after LDLT; however, it was not associated with 30-day in-hospital and 1-year mortality.