Perioperative Management During Liver Transplantation: A National Survey From the French Special Interest Group in "Liver Anesthesiology and Intensive Care"

Abstract

Background: Perioperative management practices in liver transplantation (LT) evolve very quickly. There are few specific recommendations, often based on a low level of evidence, resulting in wide heterogeneity of practices.

Methods: We performed a survey in all 16 French centers in 2021 by focusing on center organization, preoperative cardiovascular assessment, antimicrobial prophylaxis, hemostasis management, intraoperative use of hemodynamic monitoring and renal replacement therapy, immunosuppression, and postoperative prevention of arterial complications and compared it with current recommendations.

Results: The organization of perioperative LT care involved 1 single team throughout the perioperative LT process in 7 centers (43.7%). The coronary evaluation was systematic in one-third of the centers and guided by risk factors in the other centers. Antibiotic prophylaxis was strictly intraoperative in only 7 centers (44%). Antifungal prophylaxis targeting high-risk LT recipients was administered in 15 centers (93%). Intraoperative coagulation assessment was based on standard coagulation tests in 8 centers (50%), on viscoelastic assays in 4 centers (25%), and both methods in 4 centers (25%). Hemodynamic monitoring practices greatly varied between centers.Concerning immunosuppression, molecules and dosages were heterogeneous. Aspirin was systematically administered in one-third of cases (6 centers; 37.5%). Of the 21 recommendations tested, the concordance rate was 100% for 3 recommendations and <50% for 7 recommendations.

Conclusions: Our study precisely describes French practices regarding LT in perioperative care and highlights the paucity of data in this setting, leading to very weak recommendations that are poorly followed in LT centers.