[Activity and results of liver transplantation in Spain during 1984-2012. Analysis of the Spanish Liver Transplant Registry].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Liver transplantation (LT) is a proven effective treatment of severe liver disease. The aim of this paper is to analyze the results of LT in Spain during the period 1984-2012.

PATIENTS AND METHOD: We analyze the results of the database of Spanish Liver Transplant Registry.

RESULTS: A total of 20,288 transplants were performed in 18,568 patients. The median age of the donor and recipient increased during the analysis period: 25 years (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 18-40) and 47 years (95% CI 34-55), respectively, in the period 1984-1994 compared to 59 years (95% CI 33-65; P<.05) and 55 years (95% CI 48-61; P<.01), respectively, in the period 2010-2012. The most frequent indications were liver cirrhosis (63.18%) and hepatocellular carcinoma (19.62%). The overall patient and graft survival was respectively 85.1 and 77.8% in the first year, 72.6 and 63.5% the fifth year and 62 and 52.6% in the tenth year. First year patients and graft survival increased respectively from 77.8 and 66.3% in the period 1984-1994 to 88.5 and 83% in 2010-2012 (P<.01). Donor and recipient age, etiology of underlying disease, and hepatitis C virus serological status, were factors associated with decreased survival in univariate and multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: Results of LT improved significantly over the review period, despite a progressive increase in donor and recipient age.