Pretransplant hyponatremia could be associated with a poor prognosis after liver transplantation

Introduction

Predicting the prognosis of hepatic cirrhosis is the most accurate method to achieve a fair allocation among the liver transplant waiting list thereby reducing overall mortality rates.

Aim

To study the survival rates of recipients who undergo liver transplantation in association with hyponatremia rates.

Methods

This retrospective study used a prospectively collected database. The characteristics of liver donors and recipients were: age (years), Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD), MELD Na score, recipient body mass index (kg/m²), warm ischemia time (minutes), cold ischemia time (minutes), intensive care unit time (days), hemocomponents transfused, recipient glycemia (mg/dL) and serum sodium (mEq/L), Child-Pugh-Turcotte classification (points), and survival time (months). We analyzed all 318 consecutive liver transplantations from February 1994 to May 2010 divided into two groups: A (Na > 130 mEq/L) and B (Na ≤ 130 mEq/L). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to evaluate survival rate and the Cox regression test to identify predictive factors.

Results

Hyponatremic patients displayed shorter survival (P = .04). The Cox regression for survival time showed that patients with low serum sodium values (group B) had: Child-Pugh scores with 1.13% plus risk of death for each point; cold ischemia time with 1.001% less risk of death for each minute; glycemia with 0.6% for each mg/dL; 0.66% use of cell-saver; plus a risk of death for each 100 mL plus 1.02% risk of death for each year of donor age.

Conclusion

Hyponatremic cirrhotic patients show more advanced stages of disease compared to normonatremic cirrhotics. They usually display metabolic or cirrhotic decompensation and comorbidities. When these symptoms were associated with the use of extended criteria donors, increased cold ischemia time, and intraoperative bleeding, we observed lower survival rates.