Preferred language and disease severity predict evaluation for liver transplantation among patients admitted with alcohol-associated hepatitis.

BACKGROUND: Liver transplantation (LT) for alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) is a relatively new practice and limited work exists surrounding the role social determinants of health may play in evaluation. This includes language that defines how patients interact with the healthcare system. We explored characteristics of patients with AH evaluated for LT within an integrated health system. METHODS: Using a system-wide registry, we identified admissions for AH from 1 January 2016 to 31 July 2021. A multivariable logistic regression model was developed to evaluate independent predictors of LT evaluation. RESULTS: Among 1723 patients with AH, 95 patients (5.5%) underwent evaluation for LT. Evaluated patients were more likely have English as their preferred language (95.8% vs 87.9%, P = 0.020), and had higher INR (2.0 vs 1.4, P < 0.001) and bilirubin (6.2 vs 2.9, P < 0.001). AH patients who underwent evaluation had a lower burden of mood and stress disorders (10.5% vs 19.2%, P < 0.05). Patients with English preferred language had a greater than three times adjusted odds of LT evaluation compared with all others when adjusting for clinical disease severity, insurance status, sex, and psychiatric comorbid conditions (OR, 3.20; 95% CI, 1.14-9.02). CONCLUSION: Patients with AH evaluated for LT were more likely to have English as their preferred language, more psychiatric comorbidities, and more severe liver disease. Despite adjustment for psychiatric comorbidities and disease severity, English preferred language remained the strongest predictor of evaluation. As programs expand LT for AH, it is vital to build equitable systems that account for the interaction between language and healthcare in transplantation.

Kidney injury and status 1 liver transplantation: Outcomes, kidney function, and listing for kidney transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Effects of kidney injury (KI) at the time of liver transplantation (LT) for acute liver failure (ALF) remain poorly described. We hypothesized that patients with ALF and KI who undergo LT have persistent post-transplant KI, inferior survival, and increased rate of kidney transplantation (KT). METHODS: The US Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients database was queried for patients transplanted with status 1 listing for LT between 2002 and 2021. KI was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≤ 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 or dialysis in the week prior to LT. Outcomes evaluated were post-LT eGFR, listing for subsequent KT, and overall survival (OS) after LT. RESULTS: A total of 2984 patients underwent LT for ALF with 1241 (41.6%) having KI. KI patients had lower eGFR at 6 months post-LT (57.8 vs. 68.7, p < .001) that persisted out to 5 years (59.9 vs. 69.7, p < .001). KI patients were more likely to be listed for KT (4.3% vs. 1.9%, p < .001) and undergo listing sooner after LT (.8 vs. 3.7 years, p < .001). Patients without KI had higher adjusted post-transplant OS compared to those with KI (HR .75, p < .001). CONCLUSION: KI in the setting of ALF portends a worse prognosis for both kidney recovery and OS.

A Call for the Collection of Data on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity for Surgical Research-What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us.

This Viewpoint advocates for universal collection of sexual and gender minority data in the field of surgery as a means to promote equitable care and outcomes across patient populations.

Association Between Size of Dominant Candidate Lesion on Four-Dimensional CT and Four-Gland Hyperplasia among Patients with Primary Hyperparathyroidism.

BACKGROUND: Four-dimensional (4D) CT localization allows minimally invasive parathyroidectomy as treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), but false positive localization is frequent. We sought to characterize the ability of 4D CT to predict four-gland hyperplasia (HP) based on the size of candidate lesions. STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively analyzed patients with PHPT who underwent 4D CT imaging and parathyroidectomy between 2014 and 2020 from a prospectively collected institutional database. The cohort was stratified into two groups, HP vs single adenoma (SA) and double adenoma (DA), based on operative findings and pathology. Logistic regression models assessed the association between the greatest diameter of the dominant candidate lesion on 4D CT and the outcomes of four-gland hyperplasia vs SA and DA. RESULTS: Among a cohort of 240 patients, 41 were found to have HP, and 199 had adenomas (SA = 155, DA = 44). Patients with HP were less likely to have a preoperative calcium level greater than 1 mg/dL above the upper limit of normal compared with patients with adenomas (63% vs 81%, p = 0.02) and more likely to report symptoms (61% vs 43%, p = 0.04). After adjusting for BMI, we found an estimated 13% reduction in odds of HP for every 1-mm increase in the greatest diameter of dominant candidate lesions identified on 4D CT scan (odds ratio 0.87, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.96, p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: A smaller size of the dominant lesion on 4D CT scan is associated with an increased risk of HP in PHPT. Use of 4D CT imaging localization may provide evidence for differentiating HP from adenomas.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Emerging therapeutic strategies.

The seventh leading cause of cancer-related death globally, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) involves the exocrine pancreas and constitutes greater than 90% of all pancreatic cancers. Surgical resection in combination with systemic chemotherapy with or without radiation remains the mainstay of treatment and the only potentially curative treatment option. While there has been improvement in systemic chemotherapy, long-term survival among patients with PDAC remains poor. Improvement in the understanding of tumorigenesis, genetic mutations, the tumor microenvironment (TME), immunotherapies, as well as targeted therapies continued to drive advances in PDAC treatment. We herein review the TME, genetic landscape, as well as various metabolic pathways associated with PDAC tumorigenesis relative to emerging therapies.

Interleukin-27 in liver xenotransplantation: A rational target to mitigate ischemia reperfusion injury and increase xenograft survival.

Transplantation of xenogeneic organs is an attractive solution to the existing organ shortage dilemma, thus, securing a clinically acceptable prolongation of xenograft survival is an important goal. In preclinical transplantation models, recipients of liver, kidney, heart, or lung xenotransplants demonstrate significant graft damages through the release of pro-inflammatory molecules, including the C-reactive protein, cytokines, and histone-DNA complexes that all foster graft rejection. Recent studies have demonstrated that mitigation of ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) greatly improves xenograft survival. Organ IRI develops primarily on a complex network of cytokines and chemokines responding to molecular cues from the graft milieu. Among these, interleukin 27 (IL-27) plays an immunomodulatory role in IRI onset due to graft environment-dependent pro- and anti- inflammatory activities. This review focuses on the impact of IL-27 on IRI of liver xenotransplants and provides insights on the function of IL-27 that could potentially guide genetic engineering strategies of donor pigs and/or conditioning of organs prior to transplantation.

Challenges and Opportunities for Treating Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is one of the rarest and most aggressive types of cancer. The symptoms of ICC patients can be vague, leading to late diagnosis and dismal prognosis. In this review, we investigated the treatment options for ICC, as well as ways to overcome challenges in identifying and treating this disease. Imaging remains the gold standard to diagnose ICC. Patients are staged based on the tumor, nodes and metastases (TNM) staging system. Patients eligible for surgical resection should undergo surgery with curative intent with the goal of microscopically disease-free margins (R0 resection) along with lymphadenectomy. Minimal invasive surgery (MIS) and liver transplantation have recently been offered as possible ways to improve disease outcomes. ICC recurrence is relatively common and, thus, most patients will need to be treated with systemic therapy. Several clinical trials have recently investigated the use of neoadjuvant (NT) and adjuvant therapies for ICC. NT may offer an opportunity to downsize larger tumors and provide patients, initially ineligible for surgery, with an opportunity for resection. NT may also treat occult micro-metastatic disease, as well as define tumor biology prior to surgical resection, thereby decreasing the risk for early postoperative recurrence. Adjuvant systemic therapy may improve outcomes of patients with ICC following surgery. Ongoing clinical trials are investigating new targeted therapies that hold the hope of improving long-term outcomes of patients with ICC.

Virtual student-transplant patient interactions empower patients and enhance student transplantation knowledge.

INTRODUCTION: There is variation in exposure to transplantation in undergraduate medical education. We created a program pairing medical students with transplant patients for semi-structured, virtual encounters and studied the impact on both students and patients using qualitative content analysis. METHODS: Fifty medical students were paired with transplant recipients and donors for non-medical virtual encounters. Separate focus groups were conducted, deidentified, and analyzed using a constant comparative method. RESULTS: Three themes related to the student experience emerged: transplant-related relationships, a deeper understanding of the patient's journey to transplant, and alterations of their personal view of organ donation and transplantation. Three themes emerged from the patient's experiences: the benefits of conversations, the patient as a teacher, and spreading the message of organ donation and transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: This novel program demonstrates that virtual student-patient interactions are a useful approach to engage patients and a unique way to teach medical students about transplantation and donation.

Machine Perfusion of the Liver: A Review of Clinical Trials.

Although efforts have been made by transplant centers to increase the pool of available livers by extending the criteria of liver acceptance, this practice creates risks for recipients that include primary non-function of the graft, early allograft dysfunction and post-operative complications. Donor liver machine perfusion (MP) is a promising novel strategy that not only decreases cold ischemia time, but also serves as a method of assessing the viability of the graft. In this review, we summarize the data from liver machine perfusion clinical trials and discuss the various techniques available to date as well as future applications of machine perfusion. A variety of approaches have been reported including hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) and normothermic machine perfusion (NMP); the advantages and disadvantages of each are just now beginning to be resolved. Important in this effort is developing markers of viability with lactate being the most predictive of graft functionality. The advent of machine perfusion has also permitted completely ischemia free transplantation by utilization of in situ NMP showed promising results. Animal studies that focus on defatting steatotic livers via NMP as well as groups that work on regenerating liver tissue ex vivo via MP. The broad incorporation of machine perfusion into routine clinical practice seems incredible.