Parente A, Ronca V. Assessment of advanced age candidates for liver transplantation warrants more caution. World J Transplant 2022; 12(2): 24-26 [PMID: 35211379 DOI: 10.5500/wjt.v12.i2.24]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Alessandro Parente, FEBS, MD, Surgeon, Liver Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham B15 2TH, United Kingdom. aleparen@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Transplantation
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Transplant. Feb 18, 2022; 12(2): 24-26 Published online Feb 18, 2022. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v12.i2.24
Assessment of advanced age candidates for liver transplantation warrants more caution
Alessandro Parente, Vincenzo Ronca
Alessandro Parente, Vincenzo Ronca, Liver Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham B15 2TH, United Kingdom
Vincenzo Ronca, Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Parente A designed research and wrote the letter; Ronca V revised the letter; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alessandro Parente, FEBS, MD, Surgeon, Liver Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham B15 2TH, United Kingdom. aleparen@gmail.com
Received: November 11, 2021 Peer-review started: November 11, 2021 First decision: December 27, 2021 Revised: January 1, 2022 Accepted: January 17, 2022 Article in press: January 17, 2022 Published online: February 18, 2022 Processing time: 90 Days and 12.8 Hours
Abstract
For patients with fulminant liver failure and end-stage liver disease, liver transplantation remains the only effective treatment. Over the years, as a result of the ageing population, the average age of liver transplant donors and recipients has increased and currently about one quarter of patients receiving transplantation in the United States are above the age of 65. Recently, a study reported that patients aged 65 years or older had lower one-year survival compared to a younger cohort. Herein, we express our opinion about this interesting publication.
Core Tip: As a result of the ageing population, the average age of liver transplant candidates has increased over the years and about one quarter of recipients receiving transplantation in the United States are over 65 years of age. The study reported that patients aged 65 years or older had lower survival at one year compared to a younger cohort. In addition, they have identified congestive heart failure to be strongly associated with poor outcomes in elderly. In this letter to the editor, we express our opinion about these interesting findings.
