Abstract
BACKGROUND: Biliary complications (BCs) continue to impact patient and graft survival after liver transplant (LT), despite improvements in organ preservation, surgical technique, and posttransplant care. Real-world evidence provides a national estimate of the incidence of BC after LT, implications for patient and graft outcomes, and attributable cost not available in transplant registry data.
METHODS: An administrative health claims-based BC identification algorithm was validated using electronic health records (N = 128) and then applied to nationally linked Medicare and transplant registry claims.
RESULTS: The real-world evidence algorithm identified 97% of BCs in the electronic health record review. Nationally, the incidence of BCs within 1 y of LT appears to have improved from 22.2% in 2002 to 20.8% in 2018. Factors associated with BCs include donor type (living versus deceased), recipient age, diagnosis, prior transplant, donor age, and donor cause of death. BCs increased the risk-adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for posttransplant death (aHR, 1.43; P < 0.0001) and graft loss (aHR, 1.48; P < 0.0001). Nationally, BCs requiring intervention increased risk-adjusted first-year Medicare spending by $39 710 ( P < 0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS: BCs remain an important cause of morbidity and expense after LT and would benefit from a systematic quality-improvement program.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | E127-E138 |
Journal | Transplantation |
Volume | 107 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 1 2023 |
Keywords
- Aged
- Graft Survival
- Humans
- Liver Transplantation/methods
- Medicare
- Proportional Hazards Models
- Retrospective Studies
- Risk Factors
- Tissue Donors
- Treatment Outcome
- United States/epidemiology