The survival of liver transplantation (LT) recipients has been improved remarkably in short-term. The major causes of mortality in long-term include nonimmunological causes such as cardiovascular, de novo malignancy, chronic kidney disease, and recurrence of primary disease. Rejection-related mortality is rare in the long-term after LT. We discuss nonrejection causes of long-term morbidity/mortality, risk factors, and management strategies in LT recipients. In addition, we discuss osteoporosis, contraception, and pregnancy in LT recipients. ( J CLIN EXP HEPATOL 2021;11:239-253) T he main causes of long-term mortality in liver transplantation (LT) recipients are nonimmunological. The four main categories of long-term morbidity/mortality are cardiovascular, de novo malignancies (DNMs), chronic kidney disease (CKD), and recurrence if pretransplantation disease. Some of risk factors of these issues are modifiable. It is important to identify patients at risk early, so that prevention can be attempted. Osteoporosis and contraception/pregnancy are not related to mortality but are important issues for well-being. We discuss these issues, risk factors, and management strategies in the current review.
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASESAlthough cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) during perioperative or early postoperative period are mainly due to pretransplantation risk factors and/or perioperative complications, CVD events long-term after LT are related to posttransplantation metabolic syndrome (PTMS). CVD is one of major causes of morbidity and mortality after LT. 1,2 In a study of 4483 adult primary LT recipients (the United Kingdom transplant database) surviving 1 year or more, cardiac disease contributed to 8.7% of deaths. 2 A systemic review of 29 studies (n = 57,493) patients showed that incidence rates of cardiovascular outcomes varied from 1% to 41% at 6 months (or shorter) and 0%-31% for outcomes at > 6 months. Multivariate analyses showed that older age and history of cardiac disease were the most consistent predictors of cardiovascular events after transplantation. However, definitions of cardiovascular outcomes were highly inconsistent across the studies. 3 Another meta-analysis of 12 observational studies (n = 4792) with 28,783 person-years follow-up showed that 10-year risk of developing CVD events was 13.6% (pooled estimates). This risk was 4 times more in patients with metabolic syndrome (MS). 4 Khurmi et al 5 analyzed data from 2002 to 2011 from USA. The authors looked for admissions due to myocardial infarction, stroke, congestive heart failure, dysrhythmias, cardiac arrest, or malignant hypertension. CVD-related hospitalizations increased by 115% in the later period. The authors noted that cerebrovascular accident and myocardial infarction declined over time and congestive heart failure and dysrhythmia increased. A total of 19% of hospitalizations had multiple CVD diagnoses. Fussner et al 6 defined CVD as coronary artery disease (clinical diagnosis of angina, or atherosclerotic stenosis >50% in 1 or more major cor...