Scoring short-term mortality after liver transplantation

Liver transplantation can prolong survival and improve the quality of life of patients with end-stage liver disease. This study retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 149 patients who had received liver transplants in a tertiary care university hospital from January 2000 to December 2007. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables were recorded. Each patient was assessed by 4 scoring systems before transplantation and on postoperative days 1, 3, 7, and 14. The overall 1-year survival rate was 77.9%. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score had better discriminatory power than the Child-Pugh points, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, and RIFLE (risk of renal dysfunction, injury to the kidney, failure of the kidney, loss of kidney function, and end-stage kidney disease) criteria. Moreover, the SOFA score on day 7 post-liver transplant had the best Youden index and highest overall correctness of prediction for 3-month (0.86, 93%) and 1-year mortality (0.62, 81%). Cumulative survival rates at the 1-year follow-up after liver transplantation differed significantly (P < 0.001) between patients who had SOFA scores ≤ 7 on post-liver transplant day 7 and those who had SOFA scores > 7 on post-liver transplant day 7. In conclusion, of the 4 evaluated scoring systems, only the SOFA scores calculated before liver transplantation were statistically significant predictors of 3-month and 1-year posttransplant mortality. SOFA on post-liver transplant day 7 had the best discriminative power for predicting 3-month and 1-year mortality after liver transplantation.