Vascular events after liver transplantation: a long-term follow-up study

Borg, Maarten A. J. P.
van der Wouden, Egbert-Jan
Sluiter, Wim J.
Slooff, Maarten J. H.
Haagsma, Elizabeth B.
van den Berg, Arie P.

Open link

Publication date

January 2008

DOI

10.1111/j.1432-2277.2007.00557.x

Publisher

Wiley

Abstract

Long-term follow-up studies on the impact of vascular events (VE) and risk factors of liver transplant recipients are scarce. In this study, 311 recipients of a first isolated liver transplant who survived at least 1 year were followed up from 1979 to 2002. The median follow-up duration was 6.2 (range1-22.7) years. Overall median survival was 18.7 [95% confidence interval (CI): 15.5-20.1] years and this was significantly lower compared with age- and sex-matched controls. Eleven (21%) of the patients had a vascular cause of death and VE were the third cause of death. VE occurred later compared with other causes of death (mean 10.3 years vs. 4.5 years, P <0.0001, 95% CI: 2.7-8.9). Systolic hypertension, systolic blood pressure, smoking, renal...