EXPERIENCIA DE UN CENTRO EN TRASPLANTE HEPATICO EN ADULTOS Y NINOS

Orthotopic liver transplantation (THO) is the treatment of choice for a variety of liver diseases. The national experience before 1993 has been scarce. In november 1993 we started our experience in THO at Clinica Las Condes, as part of a multiorgan transplant program (liver, kidney, pancreas). Until january 1995 we have performed 14 THO in 13 recipients (one retransplantation), of which 5 were in pediatric cases. The recipients range of age fluctuated between 1 and 61 years. In 2 pediatric cases a liver allograft reduction was performed. Six recipients (46 percent) required treatment for acute cellular rejection. One recipient had an hepatic artery thrombosis and had to be retransplanted. There was no operative mortality up to 30 days in cases of primary liver transplants. The retransplanted adult recipient and another pediatric recipient that died from a late recurrence of a hepatoblastoma, accounted for the mortality of this experience. After an average follow up to 10 months, the actual patient survival is 85 percent. Of the 11 surviving recipients, 9 are in excellent conditions with a very good quality of life. This experience shows that an active liver transplant program in our country can be succesfull in obtaining results comparable to those published by very experienced foreign transplant centers (AU)