Factors influencing prolonged mechanical ventilation after liver transplantation: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract

To examine the factors contributing to the pro-longation of the mechanical ventilation period after liver transplantation, we retrospectively inspected adult living donor liver transplant recipients. A total of 46 adult liver failure patients who had undergone liver transplantation from a living donor were enrolled in this study. The subjects were divided into two groups based on the postoperative mechanical ventilation period: Group 1 comprised patients who had left within 24 hours of the postoperative ventilator use ‹n = 33›, and Group 2 consisted those who had been mounted on a ventilator for over 24 hours after surgery ‹n = 13›. The duration of mechanical ventilation was 11.0 ‹9.2, 12.0› hours in Group 1 and 36.5 ‹33.0, 154.0› hours in Group 2. Group 1 had younger patients and more men than Group 2‹p < 0.05›. There were no significant differences in pre-anesthetic laboratory data except for the serum aspartate aminotransferase level between the two groups, but hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit at the end of surgery were significantly higher in Group 2‹p < 0.05›. The patient’s age, sex, and hematocrit at the end of surgery affected the postoperative duration of mechanical ventilation in the regression analysis ‹p < 0.05›. Older age, female sex and high value of hematocrit at the end of surgery were factors of longer postoperative mechanical ventilation period in liver transplant patients.