A comparison of disease severity and survival rates after liver transplantation in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States

Abstract

The severity of preoperative liver disease influences the outcome of liver transplantation, is commonly used to determine priority on liver transplant waiting lists, and may differ between countries with different rates of liver disease and organ allocation systems. We compared the relative severity of liver disease in transplant recipients with chronic liver disease in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom and its relation to outcome. Data were obtained from national databases on patients who received transplants in the year 2000. The data included age, gender, diagnosis, the status at the time of transplantation, and indices of chronic liver disease [serum bilirubin and international normalized ratio (INR), and serum creatinine] from which a comparative score [model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score] was calculated. The data revealed marked differences between the three countries. No patient in the United Kingdom was in intensive care before transplantation compared with 19.3% of recipients in the United States and 7.5% in Canada. The median model MELD score of recipients in the United Kingdom was 10.9 compared with 16.1 in the United States and 17 in Canada. The median MELD score of transplant recipients in North America did not vary according to diagnosis, whereas in the United Kingdom, patients with cholestatic liver disease had a lower median MELD score (8.5) than those with alcoholic liver disease (15.7) at the time of transplantation. In conclusion, the disease severity of UK liver transplant recipients varied by diagnosis and was lower than recipients in North America; the 1-year survival rate was, however, similar between the countries.