Kling CE, Perkins JD, Carithers RL, Donovan DM, Sibulesky L. Recent trends in liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease in the United States. World J Hepatol 2017; 9(36): 1315-1321 [PMID: 29359014 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i36.1315]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Lena Sibulesky, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific St., Box 356410, Seattle, WA 98195, United States. lensasi@uw.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Transplantation
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Cohort Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Dec 28, 2017; 9(36): 1315-1321 Published online Dec 28, 2017. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i36.1315
Recent trends in liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease in the United States
Catherine E Kling, James D Perkins, Robert L Carithers, Dennis M Donovan, Lena Sibulesky
Catherine E Kling, James D Perkins, Lena Sibulesky, Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
Robert L Carithers, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
Dennis M Donovan, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
Author contributions: Kling CE, Perkins JD and Sibulesky L designed the research; Kling CE, Perkins JD, Carithers RL, Donovan DM and Sibulesky L performed the research; Kling CE and Perkins JD analyzed the data; Kling CE wrote the paper; Kling CE, Perkins JD, Carithers RL, Donovan DM and Sibulesky L critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Institutional review board statement: This study met expedited review criteria as approved by the University of Washington Institutional Review Board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: Statistical code and dataset available from the corresponding author at lensasi@uw.edu.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Lena Sibulesky, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific St., Box 356410, Seattle, WA 98195, United States. lensasi@uw.edu
Telephone: +1-206-5986878 Fax: +1-206-5984287
Received: August 24, 2017 Peer-review started: August 25, 2017 First decision: November 1, 2017 Revised: November 7, 2017 Accepted: December 4, 2017 Article in press: December 5, 2017 Published online: December 28, 2017 Processing time: 124 Days and 18 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Liver transplantation (LT) has become a life-saving procedure for patients with irreversible liver diseases. One of the common causes of chronic liver disease for which LT is potentially life-saving is alcoholic liver disease (ALD).
Research motivation
Population-based studies have shown that there has been an increase in the prevalence of both heavy drinking and binge drinking.
Research methods
Authors conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of transplant recipients in the United Network for Organ Sharing Standard Transplant Analysis and Research file.
Research results
Between 2002 and 2015, ALD was the third leading indication for transplant after HCV and hepatocellular carcinoma. The total number of transplants performed for ALD increased from 553 (12.8% of the annual total) in 2002 to 1020 (16.5%) in 2015.
Research conclusions
A nationwide increase was noted in the number of transplants per year for ALD beginning in 2013, particularly in young and female patients. This comes in the setting of widespread and increasing alcohol use and hospital admissions for ALD.
Research perspectives
Consideration should be given to the use of screening tools aimed at detecting alcohol use in the primary care setting to identify patients with problematic alcohol use and promote reduction in consumption in order to avoid harm.
