Volume 75, Issue 3 pp. 634-645
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

European Liver Transplant Registry: Donor and transplant surgery aspects of 16,641 liver transplantations in children

Jean de Ville de Goyet

Corresponding Author

Jean de Ville de Goyet

Department for the Treatment and Study of Pediatric Abdominal Diseases and Abdominal Transplantation, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Palermo, Italy

Correspondence

Jean de Ville de Goyet, Department for the Treatment and Study of Pediatric Abdominal Diseases and Abdominal Transplantation, ISMETT, Via Ernesto Tricomi, 5, 90127 Palermo, Italy.

Email: [email protected]

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Ulrich Baumann

Ulrich Baumann

Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Paediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association, Padua, Italy

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Vincent Karam

Vincent Karam

European Liver Transplant Registry, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris Hôpital Paul Brousse, Université Paris-Sud, Inserm U 935, Villejuif, France

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René Adam

René Adam

European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association, Padua, Italy

European Liver Transplant Registry, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris Hôpital Paul Brousse, Université Paris-Sud, Inserm U 935, Villejuif, France

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Silvio Nadalin

Silvio Nadalin

Department of General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

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Nigel Heaton

Nigel Heaton

King’s College Hospital, London, UK

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Raymond Reding

Raymond Reding

Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium

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Sophie Branchereau

Sophie Branchereau

Service de Chirurgie Viscérale Pédiatrique Bicêtre University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine Paris-Sud, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France

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Darius Mirza

Darius Mirza

Liver Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK

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Jürgen L. Klempnauer

Jürgen L. Klempnauer

Klinik für Viszeral und Transplantations-chirurgie, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

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Lutz Fischer

Lutz Fischer

Department of Visceral Transplantation, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

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Piotr Kalicinski

Piotr Kalicinski

Department of Pediatric and Transplant Surgery, Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland

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Michele Colledan

Michele Colledan

Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca, ASST Giovanni XXIII, Department of Organ Failure and Transplantation, Bergamo, Italy

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Manuel Lopez Santamaria

Manuel Lopez Santamaria

Pediatric Surgery Department, Hospital Infantil Universitario ‘‘La Paz,”, Madrid, Spain

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Ruben H. de Kleine

Ruben H. de Kleine

Department of Surgery, Section of Hepato-Pancreatico-Biliary Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands

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Christophe Chardot

Christophe Chardot

Service de Chirurgie Pediatrique, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, Paris, France

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Sezai Yilmaz

Sezai Yilmaz

Liver Transplantation Institute, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey

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Murat Kilic

Murat Kilic

Liver Transplant Program, Izmir Kent Hospital, Izmir, Turkey

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Olivier Boillot

Olivier Boillot

Pediatric Liver Transplant Surgery, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Lyon, France

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Fabrizio di Francesco

Fabrizio di Francesco

Department for the Treatment and Study of Pediatric Abdominal Diseases and Abdominal Transplantation, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Palermo, Italy

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Wojciech G. Polak

Wojciech G. Polak

European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association, Padua, Italy

Erasmus MC, Transplant Institute, Division of Hepatopancreatobiliary and Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

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Henkjan J. Verkade

Henkjan J. Verkade

European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association, Padua, Italy

Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hospital, Groningen, the Netherlands

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for the European Liver, Intestine Transplant Association

for the European Liver, Intestine Transplant Association

European Liver Transplant Registry, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris Hôpital Paul Brousse, Université Paris-Sud, Inserm U 935, Villejuif, France

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First published: 01 November 2021
Citations: 19

Jean de Ville de Goyet, Ulrich Baumann, Vincent Karam, and Henkjan J. Verkade contributed equally for first authorship.

For the complete list of contributing centers, see Supporting Information B.

Funding information

The present work did not receive any external financial or nonfinancial support. ELTR is supported by unrestricted educational grants from Astellas, Institut Georges Lopez, Novartis, Sandoz, and Chiesi, with logistical support from the Paul Brousse Hospital (Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris) and the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

Abstract

Background and Aims

The European Liver Transplant Registry (ELTR) has collected data on liver transplant procedures performed in Europe since 1968.

Approach and Results

Over a 50-year period (1968–2017), clinical and laboratory data were collected from 133 transplant centers and analyzed retrospectively (16,641 liver transplants in 14,515 children). Data were analyzed according to three successive periods (A, before 2000; B, 2000–2009; and C, since 2010), studying donor and graft characteristics and graft outcome. The use of living donors steadily increased from A to C (A, n = 296 [7%]; B, n = 1131 [23%]; and C, n = 1985 [39%]; p = 0.0001). Overall, the 5-year graft survival rate has improved from 65% in group A to 75% in group B (p < 0.0001) and to 79% in group C (B versus C, p < 0.0001). Graft half-life was 31 years, overall; it was 41 years for children who survived the first year after transplant. The late annual graft loss rate in teenagers is higher than that in children aged <12 years and similar to that of young adults. No evidence for accelerated graft loss after age 18 years was found.

Conclusions

Pediatric liver transplantation has reached a high efficacy as a cure or treatment for severe liver disease in infants and children. Grafts that survived the first year had a half-life similar to standard human half-life. Transplantation before or after puberty may be the pivot-point for lower long-term outcome in children. Further studies are necessary to revisit some old concepts regarding transplant benefit (survival time) for small children, the role of recipient pathophysiology versus graft aging, and risk at transition to adult age.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare there is no conflict of interest concerning this manuscript.

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