Childhood autoimmune liver disease: indications and outcome of liver transplantation

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Abstract

Background: Graft rejection and disease recurrence are well-recognized complications of liver transplantation (LT) for autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and autoimmune sclerosing cholangitis (AISC). We describe indications and outcome of LT for childhood AIH and AISC. Patients and Methods: Twenty-year retrospective review of a cohort of children (n = 101) with AIH, AISC, or AIH/sclerosing cholangitis overlap syndrome from a single center. Results: AIH type 1 (AIH1, n 67) was more common than AIH type 2 (AIH2, n 18), AISC (n = 8), or overlap syndrome (n = 8). Overall, 18 patients (18) required LT, the indications being failure of medical therapy (n = 16) and fulminant liver failure (n = 2). Patients with AIH who required LT had a more prolonged prothrombin time at presentation compared with those who did not undergo transplantation (P = 0.01). Patients with AIH1 who received LT had a lower aspartate transaminase (P - 0.009) and alanine transaminase (P = 0.02) levels at initial diagnosis compared with those with AIH1 who did not undergo transplantation. Post-LT, 11 patients (61) had 18 episodes of rejection, most were steroid sensitive. Disease recurrence was observed in 7 patients (39, median duration post-LT 33 months), more common in AIH2 (80 recurrence rate), and those taking cyclosporine (71, 5/7 patients) compared with those taking tacrolimus (18, 2/11 patients; P< 0.05) and in 3 of 3 children who did not have maintenance steroids post-LT. The overall 5- and 7-year post-LT survival rate was 94 and 88, respectively. Conclusions: LT is a good therapeutic option for progressive AIH and AISC, although recurrence of the primary autoimmune process limits the outcome.

Keywords

Autoimmune liver disease, childhood, liver transplant, primary sclerosing cholangitis, ursodeoxycholic acid, allograft-rejection, overlap syndrome, hepatitis

Divisions

fac_med

Publication Title

Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition

Volume

50

Issue

3

Publisher

Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins

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