Manejo nutricional en pacientes con Trasplante hepático

Abstract

In 1983 the NIH (National Institutes of Health, USA) declared that orthotopical liver transplantation (ORT) was an effective therapeutic alternative for patients with advanced liver diseases. Since then, nearly 100,000 OLTs have been performed worldwide, in more than 200 different centers. OLT (both in advanced chronic liver disease and in fulminant hepatitis) has the primary objective of prolonging the survival of affected patients, achieving a good quality of life after transplantation. 

The average 1-year and 5-year actuarial patient survival rates are approximately 85% and 80%, respectively. The general results of OLT depend on the primary cause of the recipient’s liver damage and the clinical status of the patient at the time of the
operation1. 

Liver transplantation as a treatment improves the quality of life of patients with end-stage liver disease. It is considered in some patients with advanced chronic liver disease of different etiologies and in patients with severe acute liver failure that is not reversible with conventional treatment measures. The main pathologies
that are the reason for liver transplantation are: liver cirrhosis of various etiologies (59% of transplant patients), liver tumors (21%), cholestatic conditions (5%) and severe acute liver failure (3%)2.
For all of the above, the Technical Nutrition Unit of the Carlos Andrade Marin Specialty Hospital has seen the need to carry out the following protocol in order to standardize adequate nutritional management for the prevention, treatment and complications of patients in the terminal cirrhotic stage who require a liver transplant.