[Liver transplantation in infants younger than one year of age]. / Trasplante hepático en niños menores de un año.

BACKGROUND: The development of the surgical techniques of hepatic division has maken that the young age (less than one year old) is no longer considered a risk factor in the pediatric liver transplant (TH). AIM: To show our experience with the TH in children younger than one year, comparing these results with the rest of the series and in second place to analyze if a bigger experience improves the results of the TH in this group of patients. METHODS: 44 patients that received a TH with less than a year of age are reviewed. Among them, 27 were in the last five years. The survival indexes of the graft and the patient are determined at 1, 5 and 10 years comparing them with three rest of the series. RESULTS: The grafts and patients survival was slightly inferior in the less than one year old, although in the last five years it improved 71.4% vs 82.1% at one year follow-up, and 61.9 in front of 74.5% at five years. The clinical situation of the patients that were transplanted before the year of life was worse: 43% (UNOS III, IV) in front of 13.1% in the same stadiums in the rest of the serie. In the younger patients, 54% of the grafts were reduced, versus 21% in the older. There were not a higher rate of complications in the young group. CONCLUSIONS: In spite of the difficulties of the TH in children younger than one year of age, the results are not very different from those obtained in the rest of the patients. In these results the experience of the transplant center have a great influence.