1. Liver and Kidney Transplant During a 6-Month Period in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Single-Center Experience
- Author
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Adnan Torgay, Feza Karakayali, Emre Karakaya, Ebru H. Ayvazoglu Soy, Mehmet Haberal, Mehmet Coskun, Gokhan Moray, Cihat Burak Sayin, Aydincan Akdur, and Sedat Yildirim
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Pediatrics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Time Factors ,Adolescent ,Turkey ,Waiting Lists ,Pneumonia, Viral ,Single Center ,Risk Assessment ,Immunocompromised Host ,Young Adult ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Risk Factors ,Pandemic ,medicine ,Humans ,Young adult ,Child ,Pandemics ,Transplantation ,Kidney ,Creatinine ,business.industry ,COVID-19 ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Kidney Transplantation ,Liver Transplantation ,Pneumonia ,Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care ,Treatment Outcome ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Child, Preschool ,Heart failure ,Female ,Patient Safety ,Coronavirus Infections ,Risk assessment ,business ,Delivery of Health Care ,Immunosuppressive Agents - Abstract
Objectives With the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, many studies have indicated that elective surgeries should be postponed. However, postponement of transplants may cause diseases to get worse and increase the number in wait lists. We believe that, with precautions, transplant does not pose a risk during pandemic. Here, we aimed to evaluate our transplant results, which we safely performed during a 6-month pandemic period. Materials and methods Until September 2020, 3140 kidney and 667 liver transplants have been performed in our centers. We evaluated 38 kidney transplants and 9 liver transplants procedures performed during the pandemic (March 1 to September 2, 2020). Recipient and donor candidates were screened for COVID-19 with polymerase chain reaction and thoracic computed tomography. All recipients had routine immunosuppressive protocol. During hospitalization at our COVID-19-free transplant facility, we restricted the interactions during multidisciplinary rounds. Results During the pandemic, 38 kidney transplants with an average length of hospital stay of 8.1 days were performed. Mean serum creatinine values of recipients were 0.91, 0.86, and 0.74 mg/dL on postoperative days 7, 30, and 90, respectively. During the pandemic, 9 living donor liver transplants (1 adult, 8 pediatric) were performed with an average length of hospital stay of 17.1 days. Mean serum total bilirubin levels were 0.9, 0.5, and 0.4 mg/dL on postoperative days 7, 30, and 90, respectively. Mean serum aspartate aminotransferase levels were 38.1, 28.3, and 22.3 U/L on postoperative days 7, 30, and 90, respectively. All recipients and donors were successfully discharged. Only 1 liver recipient died (on day 55 after discharge as a result of oxalosis-induced heart failure). Conclusions According to our results, when precautions are taken, transplant does not pose a risk to patients during the pandemic period. We attribute the safety and success shown to our newly developed protocol in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Published
- 2020
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