The Economic Impact of Surgical Site Infections in Liver Transplantation
1Miami Transplant Institute, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 2Transplant Infectious Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, 3University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Meeting: 2019 American Transplant Congress
Abstract number: A363
Keywords: Infection, Liver, Surgical complications
Session Information
Session Name: Poster Session A: Transplant Infectious Diseases
Session Type: Poster Session
Date: Saturday, June 1, 2019
Session Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Presentation Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Location: Hall C & D
*Purpose: Complications arising after liver transplantation result in additional healthcare costs. Previous studies have not evaluated the impact of surgical site infections on healthcare costs in Canada. The purpose of this study was to identify the differences for liver transplant recipients with and without surgical site infections from a hospital length of stay perspective and subsequently evaluate any differences in costs. Thus the objective of this study was to contrast the length of stay costs for those recipients with surgical site infections compared to those without such infections.
*Methods: This was the retrospective observational cohort study. The study was conducted in the largest transplant center in Canada, between February 2011 and August 2014. To assess the difference in the length of stay cost, we used the Mann Whitney U test. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify the variables that may have impacted on the length of stay costs.
*Results: Two hundred and twenty-nine liver transplant recipients were enrolled. Thirty-six recipients developed surgical site infections (36/229, 15.7 %). The median length of stay costs in recipients with and without surgical site infections were $39,456 Canadian dollars (CAD) (range $20,018-375,496CAD) and $31,084CAD (range 11,646-262,970), respectively. There was a trend that the recipients with surgical site infections length of stay costs were higher than recipients without these infections (p=0.088). Factors impacting on the cost significantly were transfusion more than and equal to 5 units and dialysis before transplant.
*Conclusions: Surgical site infections are commonly seen after liver transplantation. There was a trend that recipients with surgical site infection length of stay costs were higher. A larger number of transfusions and greater dialysis use before transplantation were factors associated with the cost. Implementation of cost reduction strategies targeting high-cost recipients is necessary.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Natori Y, Kumar D, Humar A, Husain S, Rotstein C. The Economic Impact of Surgical Site Infections in Liver Transplantation [abstract]. Am J Transplant. 2019; 19 (suppl 3). https://atcmeetingabstracts.com/abstract/the-economic-impact-of-surgical-site-infections-in-liver-transplantation/. Accessed May 17, 2025.« Back to 2019 American Transplant Congress