Mesut Akarsu1 , Suleyman Dolu1 , Murat Harputluoglu2 , Sezai Yilmaz2 , Murat Akyildiz3 , Genco Gencdal3 , Kamil Yalcin Polat4 , Dinc Dincer5 , Haydar Adanir5 , Ilker Turan6 , Fulya Gunsar6 , Zeki Karasu6 , Hale Gokcan7 , Sedat Karademir8 , Gokhan Kabacam8 , Meral Akdogan Kayhan9 , Murat Kiyici10 , Murat Taner Gulsen11 , Yasemin Balaban12 , Ahmet Bulent Dogrul13 , Ali Senkaya6 , Zeynep Melekoglu Ellik7 , Fatih Eren10 , Ramazan Idilman7 2Liver Transplantation Institute, Inönü University School of Medicine, Malatya, Türkiye
3Department of Gastroenterology, Koc University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Türkiye
4Liver Transplant Center, Memorial Ataşehir/Bahçelievler Hospitals, İstanbul, Türkiye
5Department of Gastroenterology, Akdeniz University School of Medicine, Antalya, Türkiye
66Department of Gastroenterology, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Türkiye
7Department of Gastroenterology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Türkiye
8Department of Gastroenterology, Guven Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye
9Department of Gastroenterology, University of Health Sciences, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye
10Department of Gastroenterology, Uludag University School of Medicine, Bursa, Türkiye
11Department of Gastroenterology, Gaziantep University School of Medicine, Gaziantep, Türkiye
12Department of Gastroenterology, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Türkiye
13Department of General Surgery, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Türkiye
Abstract
Background and Aim: This study aimed to identify the indications for liv-er transplantation (LT) based on underlying etiology and to characterize the patients who underwent LT.
Material and Methods: We conducted a multicenter crosssectional ob-servational study across 11 tertiary centers in Turkiye from 2010 to 2020. The study included 5,080 adult patients.
Results: The mean age of patients was 50.3±15.2 years, with a predominance of female patients (70%). Chronic viral hepatitis (46%) was the leading etiological factor, with Hepatitis B virus infection at 35%, followed by cryptogenic cirrhosis (24%), Hepatitis C virus infection (8%), and al-cohol-related liver disease (ALD) (6%). Post-2015, there was a significant increase in both the number of liver transplants and the proportion of living donor liver transplants (p<0.001). A comparative analysis of patient characteristics before and after 2015 showed a significant decline in viral hepatitis-related LT (p<0.001), whereas fatty liver disease-related LT significantly increased (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Chronic viral hepatitis continues to be the primary indication for LT in Turkiye. However, the proportions of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and ALD-related LT have seen an upward trend over the years.
