Background: Infectious complications, including bacteria, virus, and fungus, often occur after liver transplantation and are the most frequent cause of in-hospital mortality. The present study prospectively analyze the effect of early enteral feeding in patients after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT)

Methods: Between January 2013 and August 2013, 36 patients underwent LDLT. These patients were randomly assigned to receive enteral formula via nasointestinal feeding tubes (EN group, n=17) or maintenance on intravenous fluid until oral diets were initiated (control group, n=19). All patients completed the study.

Results: The pretransplant and perioperative characteristics of patients did not differ between the two groups. The incidence of bacterial infection was significantly lower in the EN group (29.4%) than in the control group (63.2%) (P=0.043). Additionally, the incidence of bile duct complications in the EN group was lower than in the control group (5.9% vs. 31.6%, P=0.041). Multivariate analysis showed that early enteral feeding was closely associated with bacterial infections (odds ratio, 0.178; P=0.041). There was no statistically significant difference in nutritional status between the two groups. There were no cases of in-hospital mortality.

Conclusion: Early enteral feeding after LDLT prevents post-transplant bacterial infection, suggesting the possibility of a reduction of in-hospital mortality as a result of decreased infectious complications.

CITATION INFORMATION: Kim J, Sinn D, Lee S, Choi G.-S, Park J, Kwon C, Kim S, Joh J.-W, Lee S.-K. Early Enteral Feeding After Living Donor Liver Transplantation Prevents Infectious Complications: A Prospective Pilot Study. Am J Transplant. 2016;16 (suppl 3).

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