Background:

Our objective was to describe incidence and causes readmissions within 30 days of discharge following liver transplantation (LT).

Methodology:

Medical records of 1027 consecutive patients who underwent OLT from 1/1/1997 and 12/31/2014 at our center were reviewed and causes of readmission analyzed. Pediatric transplants were excluded.

Results:

155 (15.1%) patients received living donor (LD) grafts and 873 (84.9%) patients received decease donor (DD) grafts. A total of 473 (46%) patients had readmission within 30 days of discharge following a liver transplantation. The three most common causes of readmission following a hospital discharge after a liver transplant were biliary complications (18%), gastrointestinal complaints (15%) and pulmonary complications (10%).The readmission diagnoses between DD and LD recipients are differient.(Figure 1). 43% of LD recipients who were readmitted within 30 days of discharge had biliary complications, compared to 13% for DD recipients [ p=<0.05]. Of these LD recipients with biliary complications, 50% had bile leaks and 31% had bilomas. Compared to LD recipients, pulmonary problems (11% vs. 5%) and hematologic problems (9% vs.3%) were most common causes of readmissions for DD liver recipients.

Conclusion:

Readmissions after LT represent a significant health care burden, with 46% of patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge. These data confirm that further efforts are needed to predict and circumvent treatable causes for readmission to improve health care costs and quality.

CITATION INFORMATION: Minja E, Chinnakotla S, Yadav K, Pugalenthi A, Serrano O, Kandaswamy R, Payne W, Pruett T, Kirchner V. Hospital Readmissions Following Discharge After Liver Transplantation (LT). Am J Transplant. 2016;16 (suppl 3).

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