Pregnancy after liver transplantation

Abstract

There have been great strides in transplant medicine over the past few decades, and hundreds of pregnancies have now been reported in liver transplant recipients. Information on pregnancy in transplant patients has been collected through case reports, retrospective center-specific studies, and voluntary registries. Overall, favorable pregnancy outcomes have been reported for these patients. Pregnancy complications, however, are more common in liver transplant recipients than in the general population. Accordingly, pregnancies in liver transplant recipients should be followed by a multidisciplinary team involving both maternal fetal medicine specialists and transplant physicians. This chapter outlines the available data on the maternal and obstetrical outcomes of pregnancies in liver transplant recipients, and will review guidelines for management of these high-risk pregnancies.