Intraoperative Hemodynamic Management and Postoperative Outcomes in Liver Transplantation: a Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study

The overarching objective of the research program entitled ELIPTO (Enhancing Liver Insufficiency and Postoperative Transplantation Outcomes) (www.elipto.ca) is to improve the perioperative care of liver transplant recipients. One of this program's purposes is to better define the effects of intraoperative hemodynamic management on postoperative outcomes in adult liver transplant recipients. In this study, the incidence of postoperative complications within this population will be defined in Canada and France and the association between intraoperative hemodynamics and postoperative outcomes will be measured.

Liver transplantation improves the survival of patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD). It is the second most transplanted organ with a continuously increasing annual number of transplantations, an observation partly explained by an endemic ESLD etiology in the United States, the obesity-related non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) cirrhosis. In recent decades, although sicker patients are prioritized, survival has improved possibly through an overall improvement in the quality of care. However, postoperative complications have concomitantly increased. On average, liver transplant recipients suffer from more than three postoperative complications, mainly infectious, pulmonary, renal or graft-related, two thirds of them being severe. In a low-risk patients cohort, close to 60% of all patients suffered from at least one severe complication up to 6 months after surgery. Such complications increase mortality, readmissions and cost of care. Organs available for transplantation are a scarce resource; up to 10% of grafts are no longer functional after one year. Interventions that improve patients' postoperative and graft outcomes are needed and few perioperative ones are supported by high-quality evidence.