Routine end-ischemic hypothermic machine perfusion in liver transplantation from donors after brain death: results of two-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

Data on routine hypothermic machine perfusion of livers procured from donors after brain death (DBD) are scarce, and the benefits of the method have only been demonstrated in extended criteria grafts. The aim of this study was to assess if end-ischemic dual hypothermic oxygenated machine perfusion (dHOPE) is superior to static cold storage (SCS) in preservation of livers procured from DBD donors with respect to long-term outcomes. Existing data on short-term outcomes favours dHOPE in patients receiving high-risk grafts. This prospective randomized controlled trial included 104 recipients of DBD livers randomly assigned to static cold storage arm (78 patients) and dHOPE arm (26 patients). Endpoints of interest were occurrence of biliary complications (biliary fistula, anastomotic, and nonanastomotic strictures) and overall patient (OS) and graft survival (GS) during two-year follow-up. A total of 36 patients developed biliary complications (at least one event) - 6 events in dHOPE arm and 30 in SCS arm. There was no significant difference in biliary complications between groups (23.7% vs. 43.4% [P=0.11]). No differences were found significant with respect to anastomotic (19.9% vs. 33.7% [P=0.20]) and non-anastomotic strictures (0% vs. 11.1% [P=0.10]) as well as biliary fistulas (11.7% vs. 12.2% [P=0.93]). Survival analysis did not show significantly different result in the study population - OS: 92.3% in dHOPE and 83.9% in SCS (P=0.35), and GS: 92.3% and 81.4% (P=0.23), respectively. However, significant difference in GS was noted in recipients of high-risk grafts - 100% in dHOPE and 73.1% in SCS, respectively (P=0.038). The long-term outcome data suggest that the routine use of dHOPE may be beneficial for recipients of high-risk grafts from DBD donors. The present study does not provide any evidence for benefits of dHOPE in low-risk grafts.