Impact of Hepatoblastoma on Infectious Complications Following Pediatric Liver Transplantation

Abstract

Background: Liver transplantation is the standard therapy for end-stage liver disease in pediatric patients with biliary atresia (BA), congenital and metabolic conditions, and for an unresectable malignant tumor like hepatoblastoma (HB). BA is the leading indication for pediatric liver transplantation, while HB is the most common childhood liver cancer. Despite improved outcomes through advanced surgical techniques and novel immunosuppression, pediatric liver transplantation (pLT) is complicated by post-transplant infections.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed of pLT recipients at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and stratified patients by underlying disease to assess impact on post-transplant infectious events.

Results: BA patients were youngest at pLT (12.5 months; p < 0.001) compared to other disease cohorts (HB 30.8, other 43.7). All HB patients received organs from deceased donors. In the year following pLT, 93% of the patients experienced at least one infectious event (IE). HB patients had the highest mean number of IE across disease groups (5.5 IE/patient vs. BA 4.5, other 4.0; p = 0.055), with significantly more patients with fever and neutropenia (p < 0.001) and EBV infections (p = 0.012). HB patients were more likely to develop IE earlier after pLT than non-HB groups (p = 0.013), especially Clostridioides difficile (p < 0.01) and fever and neutropenia (p < 0.01). Despite having variable IE experiences, 1-and-5-year survival across disease groups were similar.

Conclusions: IE were frequently observed in HB patients after pLT, possibly related to pre-and-postoperative chemotherapy and associated neutropenia. Underlying disease may help inform targeted infection-related patient management following pLT.

Keywords: fever and neutropenia; hepatoblastoma; infectious events; pediatric liver transplantation; postoperative complications.

FIGURE 1

1‐and‐5‐year survival for patients with hepatoblastoma (red), biliary atresia (green), and other hepatic diseases (blue). Patients from the three constituent groups were combined and represented by the purple line. Difference in survival across patient groups was analyzed using a Mantel‐Cox test for curve comparison on GraphPad Prism 9.