Abstract:
Background: The aim of the
study is to seek the causes of application, the
demographic and clinical characteristics of liver
transplant patients and to share the experiences
of our Emergency Department.
Materials and Methods: One hundred eightyeight
Emergency Department visits of ninety patients
who underwent liver transplant operations
between 2002 and 2009 were evaluated retrospectively.
Results: The patients applied to the Emergency
Department with the complaints of fever 28.2%
and abdominal pain 30.9%. It was detected that
the final diagnosis of 52.4% of the patient visits
was associated with the gastrointestinal system. It
was observed that the most common treatment
was drug therapy by 45.2% and that antibiotics
treatment was the most applied method in drug
treatment. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) median
value of hospitalized patients (45.5 U/L) is significantly
higher than that of discharged patients (35
U/L) (p = 0.04). From the records of the patients,
positive correlations between the length of hospitalization
and levels of total bilirubin, direct bilirubin,
ALT and fever during the visit were detected
(p = 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.01, p = 0.01, respectively).
Conclusions: Most frequently liver transplant
recipients visited the Emergency Departments
with the complaints of fever and abdominal pain.
The diagnosis was generally associated with gastrointestinal
system disorders. The percentage of
hospitalization was high and the length of stay at
the hospital was long. The treatment of these patients
required a multidisciplinary approach and
antibiotics constituted the most used drug treatment.
Also, fever and liver function tests examined
at the time of admittance to the Emergency
Department affected the length of hospitalization.
