Experience in 1,000 liver transplants under cyclosporine-steroid therapy: a survival report.

Abstract

INCE the first human liver transplanta- tion in Denver on March 1, 1963, numerous refinements in surgical techniques and in perioperative care have been made, the mechanism of graft rejection has been more precisely understood, and safer and more effective immunosuppressive agents have been discovered.I . 3Now, in 1987, it is well accepted that liver transplantation is often the only effective therapy for many advanced liver.diseases.We will report here, as a landmark of our continuing efforts, the survival of patients with various end-stage liver diseases after liver transplantation from our own experience in 1,000 hepatic homograft recipients under cyclosporine-steroid therapy. CASE MATERIALS AND METHODSSince the introduction of cyclosporine-steroid therapy for our liver recipients in March 1980, 1,000 patients received liver homografts for various end-stage liver diseases by July 1987 at our institutes in Denver (in 1980), in Pittsburgh (since 1981), and Dallas (since 1985).Of the 1,000 liver recipients, 666 were adults of age 18 years or older, and 334 were children of the ages younger than 18 years.The youngest liver recipient was 26 days old, and the oldest one was 76 years old at the time of transplantation.The numbers of patients in various age groups are listed in Table 1.The liver diseases of adult recipients and those of pediatric recipients are listed in Table 2 andTable 3.