EARLY NEUROLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS IN ADULT LIVING DONOR LIVER TRANSPLANTATION. RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS IN AN EGYPTIAN CENTER

Introduction: Neurological complications which are known to be responsible for significant mortality and morbidity after liver transplantation have been reported in various series. Aim of the study: The objective of this study was to define the early neurological complications of the adult recipients underwent liver transplantation (LT) in the National liver institute – Menofeya University. Patients and methods: Patients who underwent living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) were retrospectively evaluated during the period from May 2003 to December 2010. The observation period was from the postoperative day one till the end of the first post operative month. All recipients received corticosteroids and tacrolimus (FK) as immunosuppressant. Results: 112 living donor liver transplantations were done, and after exclusion of the pediatric cases (n=23), four of the adult patients due to incomplete data, three recipients died in the first postoperative month and two cases were also excluded due to abnormal clinical course. The remaining adult recipients were 80 patients of them twenty two (27.5%) experienced neurological complications. These complications were categorized into minor, major complications and peripheral nerve injuries. Conclusion: This work showed that in adult recipients of living donor liver transplantation there was relevant variety of neurological complications which represented significant causes of postoperative morbidity. The knowledge of these complications is important for transplantation teams to reduce their prevalence and to improve their management.