Albumin Mass Balance in Liver Transplantation, an Open Prospective Cohort Study

Background Capillary leakage has been recognized to be associated with surgery and inflammation [Fleck 1985]. In liver transplantation considerable amounts of exogenous albumin is administered to support circulatory stability and a post operative plasma albumin concentration of 25 g/L to facilitate interpretation of immuno suppressive drug concentrations. However, the long term effects of exogenous albumin is not well characterized in the literature, and extravasation might promote edema formation and impair wound healing. In previous studies we have demonstrated the ability of the albumin mass balance method to identify leakage of albumin in major abdominal surgery [Norberg 2016].

In a pilot study in patients undergoing liver transplantation (n=11) we found a net leakage of albumin from plasma of 37 ± 17 g at end of surgery and 48 ± 33 g at postoperative day 3.

The primary aim of the new study is to find if this net leakage is still there at postoperative day 7. We are also looking into predictors of positive albumin shift from plasma including markers of inflammation and endothelial injury or dysfunction. Focus will also be put on the subgroup of children during and after liver transplantation. Finally a subgroup of patients in need of prolonged ICU stay after liver transplantation will be investigated to see the prolonged effects of our present routines, and these patients ability to synthetize albumin.

All patients undergoing liver transplantation at Karolinska University Hospital are eligible.

Recruitment will be made in advance as soon as patients are put on the transplant waiting list. In adults, at the day of surgery, blood samples will be taken repeatedly for estimation of plasma albumin. In all patients we will keep track of any gains or losses of albumin or hemoglobin in suction bottles, drains, exogenous blood products, exogenous albumin etc. This sampling will proceed during the study period that will end at hospital discharge or not later than post-operative day 21. Adult patients that are still in the ICU on postoperative day 3 will be subjected to a measurement of albumin synthesis rate by the flooding method [Ballmer 1993]. All subjects, even children, will have blood sampled for ELISAs of markers of inflammation and endothelial injury or dysfunction.