November 12, 2023
2 minute read
Important points:
- Patient and allograft survival rates one year after liver transplantation were similar between COVID-19 positive and negative donors.
- During the peak of COVID-19, the use of COVID-19 positive organs increases.
BOSTON — Researchers report similar patient and allograft survival rates one year after liver transplant between COVID-19 positive and negative donors, according to data from The Liver Meeting This showed the possibility of expanding access to organs.
“During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, liver transplant volume decreased worldwide.” Dr. Roy X. Wang, the Penn Medicine professor said in a related Q&A with AASLD. “As COVID-19 becomes more prevalent, researchers have found in a small study that patients who received solid organ transplants from COVID-19 positive donors were more likely to receive solid organ transplants from COVID-19 negative donors. We found that short-term outcomes appeared to be acceptable compared to patients who underwent transplantation.”
“We wanted to investigate the safety of liver transplants from COVID-19 positive donors using a large national dataset with the longest follow-up period to date.” – Roy・Dr. X. Wang
He added: “We wanted to investigate the safety of liver transplants from COVID-19 positive donors using a large national dataset with the longest follow-up period to date. ” he said.
In a retrospective cohort study, Wang et al. used the United Network for Organ Sharing Registry to identify liver transplant recipients from July 2020 to July 2022, of whom 13,096 were negative for COVID-19. 299 people received a liver transplant from a coronavirus-positive donor. The researchers used regression models to assess the correlation between donor status and patient and allograft survival.
Results showed that COVID-19 positive donors were younger than COVID-19 negative donors (median age, 38 years vs. 41 years). P < .001) and are more likely to become a donor after brain death (94% vs. 88.8%; P = .005), more likely to be present in certain UNOS regions (P < .001). There were no significant differences in the demographics of recipients of COVID-19 negative or positive livers.
Furthermore, after 1 year of post-transplant follow-up, Wang et al. 2.36) reported that there was no difference. ) between COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative donors.
“Although we were able to show that post-transplant patient and graft survival rates were similar between COVID-19 positive and negative donors, other complications such as rejection, liver damage, and hospitalization The incidence of this has not been investigated,” Wang said in a Q&A. “Due to data limitations, we can only report results up to 1 year post-transplant.”
He added: “Additional studies will be needed to continue to monitor future results and identify differences between recipients of COVID-19 positive and negative donors.” .
