Objective: To investigate the prevalence and associated risk factors of bacterial translocation (BT) in patients with cirrhosis after liver transplantation and analyze the effect of BT on bacterial infection after the surgery.
Methods: Mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), portal vein blood, and peripheral blood were collected during the liver transplantation for microbiological culture from 78 patients with cirrhosis. And meanwhile, all related clinical data were analyzed to investigate the risk factors of BT and its relationship with post-liver transplantation infections.
Results: BT was occurred in 8 of 78 cirrhotic patients (10.3%) and positive-rate of MLN culture was 5/8. Gram-negative aerobic bacillus was the main causative bacterium of BT (5/9), followed by Gram-positive aerobic enterococcus (22.2%, 2/9). Total bilirubin level in patients with BT was significantly higher than that in patients without BT.
Conclusions: It suggests that hyperbilirubinemia is the only risk factor for BT, and BT is associated with an increased infectious rate after liver transplantation.