Abstract

LOPEZ PANQUEVA, Rocío del Pilar. Most Relevant Pathology Issues in the Late Post Liver Transplant Period. Rev Col Gastroenterol [online]. 2016, vol.31, n.3, pp.297-310. ISSN 0120-9957.

One year survival rates of liver transplant patients exceed 90% while five year survival rates exceed 75%. Understanding the causes of graft losses and patient deaths is essential for further improvement of long-term results. Evaluation of liver biopsies has an important role in explaining liver graft dysfunction that occurs more than one year after transplantation, and thus is key for post-transplant patient management. The interpretation of these biopsies can be very difficult especially because of the high incidence of recurrent diseases that sometimes have clinical and histopathological features that resemble various other conditions. This is especially true for acute and chronic rejection which can overwhelm an existing condition and which can develop simultaneously with other conditions that contribute to late graft dysfunction. Analysis of the biopsy can help determine the main component of a lesion. Clinical findings must be correlated to pathological findings, and the correlation must take into account the original disease, the type of immunosuppression, liver function tests, viral serology, autoantibodies and radiological findings. In this article I will discuss the most common diseases and those that cause the most problems for diagnosis during the late post-transplant period

Keywords : Liver biopsy; liver transplantation; chronic rejection; ductopenia; recurrent viral hepatitis C; recurrent autoimmune hepatitis; de novo autoimmune hepatitis; recurrent primary biliary cirrhosis; recurring primary sclerosing cholangitis.

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