Impact of intraoperative ligation of splenic artery on prognosis of liver transplantation on patients with severe hypersplenism / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the impact of simultaneous ligation of splenic artery on prognosis of patients with severe hypersplenism in liver transplantation.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of 206 patients who underwent liver transplantation in the Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from December 2016 to February 2019. There were 180 males and 26 females, aged (51.0±9.0) years old. Fifty-one patients underwent splenic artery ligation during liver transplantation and they were enrolled into the observation group, and 155 patients without splenic artery ligation were enrolled into the control group. The changes in white blood cells (WBC), platelets, alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin and serum creatinine as well as the incidence of postoperative complications were compared between the two groups.Results:The platelet count of the observation group was significantly lower than those of the control group before operation and on days 1, 3, 7, 30 and 90 after operation, (all P<0.05). The WBC counts in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group before operation and on days 1 and 3 after operation (all P<0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the WBC counts between the two groups on days 5, 7, 30 and 90 after operation (all P>0.05). There were also no significant differences in alanine aminotransferase and total bilirubin indexes between the two groups after surgery (all P>0.05), but the serum creatinine levels in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group on days 3, 5, 7 and 30 after surgery (all P<0.05). There were no significant differences in the rates of infection, severe acute rejection, biliary tract complications, arterial/portal thrombosis and mental complications between the two groups (all P>0.05). The rate of renal replacement therapy for acute kidney injury in the observation group (9.8%, 5/55) was significantly higher than that in the control group (1.3%, 2/155) ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Ligation of splenic artery during liver transplantation was safe and it had a significant advantage in the early postoperative recovery of WBC count and creatinine without increasing the incidence of complications in patients with severe hypersplenism.