Risk Factors and Outcomes of Pyogenic Liver Abscess in Adult Liver Recipients: A Match Case Control Study

Risk Factors and Outcomes of Pyogenic Liver Abscess in Adult Liver Recipients: A Match Case Control Study

Objective: the aim of this study is to identify risk factors associated with the development of pyogenic liver abscesses (PLA) in adult liver recipients (ALR) and to describe the experience of the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires (HIBA) in the diagnosis and therapeutic management of these patients.

Background: adult liver recipients differ from the general population with PLA as they exhibit: reconstructed biliary anatomy, recurrent hospitalizations, regular performance status and are subjected to immunosuppression. However, the scientific evidence regarding PLA developed in transplanted organs is still scarce and the management of this disease continues to be based on experience in non-transplanted patients.

Methods: between 1996 and 2016, 879 adult patients underwent liver transplantation (LT) at our institution. Patients who developed PLA after LT (cases) and controls are matched according to the time from transplant to abscess in a 1 to 5 relation. The investigators performed a logistic regression model to establish PLA risk factors considering clusters for matched cases and controls. Independent risk factors will be identified using multivariate regression analysis.

Objective: the aim of this study is to identify risk factors associated with the development of pyogenic liver abscesses (PLA) in adult liver recipients (ALR) and to describe the experience of the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires (HIBA) in the diagnosis and therapeutic management of these patients.

Background: adult liver recipients differ from the general population with PLA as they exhibit: reconstructed biliary anatomy, recurrent hospitalizations, regular performance status and are subjected to immunosuppression. However, the scientific evidence regarding PLA developed in transplanted organs is still scarce and the management of this disease continues to be based on experience in non-transplanted patients.

Methods: between 1996 and 2016, 879 adult patients underwent liver transplantation (LT) at our institution. Patients who developed PLA after LT (cases) and controls are matched according to the time from transplant to abscess in a 1 to 5 relation. The investigators performed a logistic regression model to establish PLA risk factors considering clusters for matched cases and controls. Independent risk factors will be identified using multivariate regression analysis.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients older than 18 years of age with a history of univisceral liver transplantation since January 2002 for any cause and who have undergone medical follow-up at HIBA and had at least one event of liver abscess after transplantation.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who died during the hospitalization of the transplant. Patients with parasitic, fungal or amoebic abscesses were excluded. Those patients with subdiaphragmatic or subhepatic abscesses, tumors with abscessed central necrosis were not included in the study either. Patients who underwent liver transplantation at another institution and were then admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of AHP were not included.