What are the most common complications of liver transplantation?
liver transplantation is a risky surgery that is usually performed as a last opportunity to save patients' lives. The risk of complications of liver transplantation starts immediately after surgery and can continue years after surgery. Rejection is the most serious and serious complications and can lead to the patient's death. Main bleeding, clotting and infection are also serious complications of liver transplantation immediately after surgery - every risk decreases with the course of time. Patients also face cancer development after liver transplantation.
Transplant surgery involves the use of a donor organ - sometimes from a dead brain donor and sometimes a partial liver from a living person. The body considers the new liver as an attacker and the immune system is trying to attack it in an effort to reject the organ. Patients take heavy doses of immunosuppressants to reduce risk, but sometimes the reaction of the immune system is too strong to overcome the rejection of liver transplantation. About two thirdspacians with a liver transplant fromand are a certain level of rejection. If it is sufficiently serious, re-transplantation is required.
Immunosuppressants used to reduce chances for rejection cause patients with a higher risk of infection. Infections are considered to be the most common complications of liver transplantation. People with other health conditions such as AIDS or those who have recently undergone chemotherapy or other organs transplantation are most prone to post-surgical infections. The risk of infection decreases gradually, as time passes after surgery and the body adapts to new liver.
The main bleeding after surgery is another common complication. Bleeding is common with any major surgery, but can be particularly pronounced in liver transplants. The new liver must quickly produce proteins to scratch blood; If not, the bleeding remains a probable complication. Sometimes bleeding can be controlled via transfusIons to replace the lost blood. Inner bleeding after transplantation is often repaired by subsequent operations.
On the contrary, some patients have problems with clotting. The vessels that supply blood to the liver may be clotched after surgery, causing the risk of organ - and the patient's life. Patients are monitored daily ultrasound for several days after surgery to detect any precipitation. A subsequent operation is usually required to remove clots.
As time goes by, the risk of complications of liver transplantation decreases somewhat. For example, problems with bleeding, precipitation and infections decrease over time, but rejection remains a permanent problem. Patients remain on immunosuppressants to maintain the risk of low and continuing use can lead to cancer. Skin and lymphoma cancer are particularly disturbing long -term complications of liver transplantation because immunosuppressants kill white blood cells that would normally attack malignant cell growth.