Non-cancerous prognostic factors of hepatocellular carcinoma after liver transplantation

purpose: to explore non-cancerous factors that may be related with medium-term survival (24 months) after liver transplantation (lt) in this data from northeast brazil. methods: a cross-sectional study was carried out in patients who underwent deceased-donor orthotopic lt because hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) at the university of pernambuco, brazil. non-cancerous factors (i.e.: donor-, receptor-, surgery- and center-related variables) were explored as prognostic factors of medium-term survival using univariate and multivariate approachs. results: sixty-one patients were included for analysis. their three, six, 12 and 24-month overall cumulative survivals were 88.5%, 80.3%, 73.8% and 65.6%, respectively. our univariate analysis identified red blood cell transfusion (exp[b]=1.26; p<0.01) and hepato-venous reconstruction technique (84.6% vs. 51.4%, p<0.01; respectively for piggyback and conventional approaches) as significantly related to post-lt survival. the multivariate analysis confirmed the hepato-venous reconstruction technique was an independent prognostic factor. conclusion: the piggyback technique was related to improved medium-term survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients after liver transplantation in this northeast brazilian sample.