Long-term results after liver transplantation

Liver transplantation has been reported to reach excellent results for selected indications. We analysed the results of liver transplantation in our centre over a period of 23 years, with a total of 2,114 consecutive liver transplants in 1,773 patients (eras I-III 5.5 years each, era IV 6.5 years). Overall 20-year survival after liver transplantation was 29.8%. The most frequent leading causes of death were infections of various origins (30%), tumour recurrence (14.2%), and pneumonia (8.4%). The most frequent leading causes for graft loss were infection of various origins (19.6%), initial nonfunction of the graft (14.6%), and tumour recurrence (9.6%). Both long-term patient and graft survival were significantly better after primary liver transplantation than after first retransplantation (P < 0.001). Patient and graft long-term survival improved significantly across all four consecutive eras (P < 0.001). In era IV, the most recent, 5-year patient survival reached 96% for PBC, 89.4% for PSC, 78.5% for biliary atresia, 70% for acute liver failure, 69.1% for HBV-related cirrhosis, 61.3% for hepatocellular carcinoma, and 56% for HCV-related cirrhosis.