Pregnancy Outcomes After Liver Transplantation: A Systematic Review.
Prodromidou, A., Kostakis, I. D. et al. (2019).Transplantation Proceedings 51(2): 446-449.
Aims
To explore the evidence surrounding pregnancy outcomes in liver transplant (LT) patients.
Interventions
Literature search for articles referring to pregnancy outcomes following liver transplantation between 1963 to September 2017. Inclusion criteria comprised trials that recruited >10 patients presenting with at least one obstetric and/or maternal outcome with prior LT.
Participants
A total of 19 retrospective studies, including 1290 pregnancies in 885 female LT recipients were included in the review.
Outcomes
Outcomes were assessed as pregnancy related complications, which included: preterm birth, spontaneous abortion and preeclampsia and graft-related complications.
Follow-up
N/A
CET Conclusions
This review aims to identify all studies reporting outcomes from pregnancies following liver transplantation. The authors identify 19 studies describing 1290 patients, and report on risks of preterm birth, spontaneous abortion, pre-eclampsia and graft-related complications. The brevity of the report means that it is difficult to assess the methodology used fully. The study is limited by potential overlap – many of the patients described in smaller studies are likely duplicated in the larger registry studies. Nonetheless, this paper acts as a good summary and starting-point for discussion of the potential risks of pregnancy with liver transplant patients.
Trial registration
N/A