A retrospective study was conducted to determine the significance of intensive care management on outcome after liver transplantation (LTx) in children. Of 195 transplants performed in 162 children, factors affecting morbidity and mortality were documented during the post-operative intensive care unit (ICU) stay. To assess the gain in experience of ICU management, we compared mean ventilation time and stay in the ICU as well as mortality, incidence of surgical complications, infections, and rejection episodes, during three different time-periods (October 1991-August 1994, September 1994-July 1996, and August 1996-February 1998). The time spent by patients in the ICU (9.7 days vs. 7.9 days vs. 4.7 days, p <0.001) and time on ventilation (5.2 days vs. 3.1 days vs. 1.2 days, p <0.001) were significantly reduced over the duration of the study. The overall mortality was 18.0% (n = 30) and 76.7% (n = 23) of these deaths occurred during the early post-operative period in the ICU. The incidence of severe surgical complications decreased significantly over time, and the application of intra-operative Doppler ultrasound since 1994 led to detection of 27 correctable vascular complications. The overall incidence of acute cellular rejection episodes in our center was 64.1%: 43.5% of the infectious episodes occurred in the ICU (bacterial 70.2%, viral 12.3%, and fungal 17.5%). The main side-effect from immunosuppressive drugs was arterial hypertension in 29% of the patients. We conclude that our efforts to improve intensive care management and monitoring were the key elements in reducing morbidity and mortality after pediatric LTx.
