Perioperative blood transfusion decreases long-term survival in pediatric living donor liver transplantation.

BACKGROUND: The impact of perioperative blood transfusion on short- and long-term outcomes in pediatric living donor liver transplantation (PLDLT) must still be ascertained, mainly among young children. Clinical and surgical postoperative complications related to perioperative blood transfusion are well described up to three months after adult liver transplantation. AIM: To determine whether transfusion is associated with early and late postoperative complications and mortality in small patients undergoing PLDLT. METHODS: We evaluated the effects of perioperative transfusion on postoperative complications in recipients up to 20 kg of body weight, submitted to PLDLT. A total of 240 patients were retrospectively allocated into two groups according to postoperative complications: Minor complications (n = 109) and major complications (n = 131). Multiple logistic regression analysis identified the volume of perioperative packed red blood cells (RBC) transfusion as the only independent risk factor for major postoperative complications. The receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn to identify the optimal volume of the perioperative RBC transfusion related to the presence of major postoperative complications, defining a cutoff point of 27.5 mL/kg. Subsequently, patients were reallocated to a low-volume transfusion group (LTr; n = 103, RBC ≤ 27.5 mL/kg) and a high-volume transfusion group (HTr; n = 137, RBC > 27.5 mL/kg) so that the outcome could be analyzed. RESULTS: High-volume transfusion was associated with an increased number of major complications and mortality during hospitalization up to a 10-year follow-up period. During a short-term period, the HTr showed an increase in major infectious, cardiovascular, respiratory, and bleeding complications, with a decrease in rejection complications compared to the LTr. Over a long-term period, the HTr showed an increase in major infectious, cardiovascular, respiratory, and minor neoplastic complications, with a decrease in rejection complications. Additionally, Cox hazard regression found that high-volume RBC transfusion increased the mortality risk by 3.031-fold compared to low-volume transfusion. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves of the studied groups were compared using log-rank tests and the analysis showed significantly decreased graft survival, but with no impact in patient survival related to major complications. On the other hand, there was a significant decrease in both graft and patient survival, with high-volume RBC transfusion. CONCLUSION: Transfusion of RBC volume higher than 27.5 mL/kg during the perioperative period is associated with a significant increase in short- and long-term postoperative morbidity and mortality after PLDLT.

Outcome impact of hemodynamic and depth of anesthesia monitoring during major cancer surgery: a before-after study.

Hemodynamic and depth of anesthesia (DOA) monitoring are used in many high-risk surgical patients without well-defined indications and objectives. We implemented monitoring guidelines to rationalize hemodynamic and anesthesia management during major cancer surgery. In early 2014, we developed guidelines with specific targets (Mean arterial pressure > 65 mmHg, stroke volume variation < 12%, cardiac index > 2.5 l min-1 m-2, central venous oxygen saturation > 70%, 40 < bispectral index < 60) for open abdominal cancer surgeries > 2 h. Pre-, intra-, and post-operative data were collected from our electronic medical record database and compared before (March-August 2013) and after (March-August 2014) guideline implementation. A total of 596 patients were studied, 313 before (Before group) and 283 after (After group) guideline implementation. The two groups were comparable for age, ASA score, physiological P-POSSUM score, and surgery duration, but the operative P-POSSUM score was higher in the after group (20 vs. 18, p = 0.009). The use of cardiac output, central venous oxygen saturation and DOA monitoring increased from 40 to 61%, 20 to 29%, and 60 to 88%, respectively (all p-values < 0.05). Intraoperative fluid volumes decreased (16.0 vs. 14.5 ml kg-1 h-1, p = 0.002), whereas the use of inotropes increased (6 vs. 11%, p = 0.022). Postoperative delirium (16 vs. 8%, p = 0.005), urinary tract infections (6 vs. 2%, p = 0.012) and median hospital length of stay (9.6 vs. 8.8 days, p = 0.032) decreased. In patients undergoing major open abdominal surgery for cancer, despite an increase in surgical risk, the implementation of guidelines with predefined targets for hemodynamic and DOA monitoring was associated with a significant improvement in postoperative outcome.