Background: In response to the growing number of obese patients undergoing liver transplantation(LT), it is important to investigate the impact of obesity on post-transplant outcomes. Vascular complications are rare but serious causes of morbidity and mortality after LT. There was no certain conclusion whether pre-transplant obesity is associated with the increased incidence of vascular complications.

Methods: The MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Library database were searched in September 2017. The primary outcome was to evaluate the impact of obesity on vascular complications rate in adult recipients. The survival and biliary complications rate were also analyzed. Risk ratio and 95% confidence interval(CI) were calculated to compare the pooled data between groups with different body mass index(BMI)(≥30 and BMI<30).

Results: Eight retrospective cohort studies with a total of 1038 patients with BMI≥30(high BMI group) and 2986 patients with BMI<30 (control group) were included in the analysis. Vascular complications rates were similar between high BMI group and control group(RR=1.16, 95%CI=0.90-1.50, P=0.24), so were the survival and biliary complications rate. In the subgroup analysis, there was no difference in terms of vascular complications rate(BMI≥35 Vs BMI<25, BMI 30-35 vs BMI 18-25, BMI≥30 vs BMI 18-25, BMI≥35 vs BMI<35). No difference was found in subgroup analysis of the studies adjusted BMI for ascites. However, for recipients whose primary disease is alcoholic liver disease, patients with BMI≥30 had higher incidence of vascular complications after LT than patients with BMI<30(RR=1.54, 95%CI=1.08-2.19, P=0.02) .

Conclusion: The results of our analysis suggest that BMI dose not affect incidence of vascular complications.. High pre-transplant BMI is not the risk factor for patient survival and biliary complications rate following transplantation.

CITATION INFORMATION: Deng R., Shi Y., Huang B., Ma Y. The Impact of Obesity on Incidence of Vascular Complications after Liver Transplantation: A Meta-Analysis Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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