[Hepatic transplantation in cirrhosis].

The authors review the indications and outcome of liver transplantation for hepatic cirrhosis of various aetiologies in adults, on the basis of their experience and that of the literature. Up to 1989, they performed 107 liver transplantations in 93 adults, including 70 patients with cirrhosis: primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) in 20, primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) in 2, secondary biliary cirrhosis in 1, post-necrotic cirrhosis in 35, alcoholic cirrhosis in 5, metabolic cirrhosis in 7. The best indications are PBC with rising bilirubinemia (greater than 5 mg/dl) or portal hypertension and PSC with severe and diffuse lesions. The outcome of transplantation was satisfactory in patients with PBC: 16 survived with a mean follow-up of 23 months. In patients transplanted for postnecrotic cirrhosis the outcome might be better if HBS is associated preoperatively with delta antigen: 6 patients of this group survived with a mean follow-up of 12.6 months while in the group of 8 patients with HBS not associated preoperatively with delta antigen, 6 patients survived with a mean follow-up of 12.8 months. There was a trend toward a higher hospital mortality after transplantation in cirrhotic patients with pulmonary arterio-venous shunts in comparison with cirrhotic patients without significant pulmonary arterio-venous shunts preoperatively.