Background : Liver transplantation is the usual treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma.Aim:To analyze the MELD score, waiting time and three month and one year survival for
liver transplantation in cirrhotic patients affected by hepatocellular carcinoma
or not.
Methods : This was a retrospective, observational and analytical study of 93 patients
submitted to liver transplantation.
Results : There were 28 hepatocellular carcinoma and 65 non-hepatocellular carcinoma
patients with no differences related to age and sex distribution. The main causes
of cirrhosis on hepatocellular carcinoma were hepatitis C virus (57.1%) and
hepatitis B virus (28.5%), more frequent than non-hepatocellular carcinoma
patients, which presented 27.7% and 4.6% respectively. The physiological and
exception MELD score on hepatocellular carcinoma were 11.9 and 22.3 points. On
non-hepatocellular carcinoma, it was 19.4 points, higher than the physiological
MELD and lower than the exception MELD on hepatocellular carcinoma. The waiting
time for transplantation was 96.2 days for neoplasia, shorter than the waiting
time for non-neoplasia patients, which was 165.6 days. Three month and one year
survival were 85.7% and 78.6% for neoplasia patients, similar to non-neoplasia,
which were 77% and 75.4%.Conclusion:Hepatocellular carcinoma patients presented lower physiological MELD score, higher
exception MELD score and shorter waiting time for transplantation when compared to
non-hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Three month and one year survival were the
same between the groups.