Successful use of intra-operative continuous renal replacement therapy in pediatric liver transplant recipients: Single center case series.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in pediatric patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT), with an incidence 17%-55%. Fluid, metabolic, and acid-base aberrancies are often pronounced pre-operatively and further worsened by events during LT, making intra-operative continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) an option for critically ill LT recipients.

Methods: All pediatric LT performed at our institution who underwent intra-operative CRRT between January 2017 and August 2021 were included. Patient demographics and clinical data including graft outcomes, intra-operative findings, and timing and indications for CRRT were collected from the electronic medical record.

Results: CRRT was used in nine of the 76 (12%) pediatric LT performed at our center during the study period. Ages at LT ranged from 39 to 17.7 years. Recipients requiring CRRT were more likely to have acute liver failure, status 1A, and higher calculated MELD/PELD scores. CRRT was initiated pre-transplant in three recipients and continued post-transplant in six recipients. Median duration of CRRT was two (range 0-14) days. Indications included hyperammonemia (3/9), acidosis (3/9), fluid overload (6/9), and hyperkalemia (2/9). The CRRT group had a significantly longer post-transplant intensive care unit length of stay in comparison to those that did not require CRRT (median 6, range 3-40 days vs. median 3, range 0-121 days, p = .02], but there were no significant differences in reoperations, hospital length of stay, or recipient or graft survival.

Conclusions: We demonstrate that CRRT can be safely performed in pediatric LT recipients, including young infants through adolescents.