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Dear colleagues and friends,
Preparations for the Joint International Congress 2020 of ILTS, ELITA and LICAGE are well underway and on track. The period for Congress abstract submissions has now concluded. However, it’s not too late for ILTS members under 42 to submit cases for the Vanguard Grand Rounds and have the opportunity to present at ILTS 2020 in Istanbul.
Remember that you have until January 10, 2020 to take advantage of the early registration fee. We will be sure to keep you informed about the status of the preparations in the forthcoming newsletters.
In the articles below you will learn more about other exciting ILTS initiatives and opportunities! You will also find a link to the lecture recordings from the ILTS Perioperative Care in Liver Transplantation Meeting held in Orlando last October. And of course, in the highly anticipated "What we read" section, you will find the latest scientific articles relevant to anyone working in the field of liver transplantation.
Enjoy reading and have a wonderful holiday season!
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Claus U. Niemann n
ILTS President
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Help us bring the Liver Transplant community together:
Forward this newsletter to your colleagues!
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Call for Cases: ILTS 2020 Joint International Congress of ILTS, ELITA and LICAGE
This is your chance to present and discuss an interesting case at ILTS 2020! All ILTS members under 42 years of age are invited to submit a case for the Vanguard Grand Rounds. Please complete this template and send it to abstracts@2020.ilts.org by January 13 2020.
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ILTS 2020 Consensus Conference
In just one month, specialists in machine perfusion technology and DCD liver transplantation will meet at the ILTS Consensus Conference (Venice, Jan 31, 2020). This one-day event focuses on the latest trial results and innovations in this field.
By participating in the workshops, you will contribute to the Consensus Conference 2020 paper that will be published in Transplantation. Register now for the Consensus Meeting.
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Highlights and feedback from ILTS 2019: Shaping Istanbul 2020
The ILTS 2019 Congress in Toronto was a huge success, attracting 1,136 participants from 50 countries. It featured more than 900 scientific abstracts, 60 state-of-the-art lectures, workshops on machine perfusion and echocardiography, and a series of vibrant networking events. Both academic content and congress organisation were rated good or excellent by over 90% of respondents.
The Toronto congress also laid the foundations for several exciting new educational formats for Istanbul 2020. These will include seven Special Interest Group sessions, previews of the latest innovations from industry, and four new hands-on workshops. More networking events and an upgraded congress app will also enrich delegates’ experience. ILTS thanks the Toronto program team for pioneering these developments, and looks forward to welcoming you to Istanbul!
Read more feedback on ILTS 2019, and see our congress image gallery.
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TTS-ILTS Paired Transplant Centers Program
This unique educational initiative, co-sponsored by ILTS and The Transplantation Society, was launched in April 2019. It supports collaboration and the exchange of expertise between an experienced center with robust educational resources and a new, government-supported liver transplant unit in an emerging region.
The program progresses in two-year stages for a total
of six years, with up to three pairs selected to enter the
program each year.
For more information and application details, visit tts-ilts.org.
The application deadline for 2020 entry is December 31, 2019.
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Become an ILTS Committee Member
The ILTS committees are instrumental in supporting the mission of our society and promoting education and communication in specialty areas. Would you like to participate? Most ILTS committees have membership positions available for the 2020 application cycle.
You have until December 31 to apply!
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2020 International Travel Scholar Award
The International Travel Scholar Award provides $10,000 to help trainees and younger faculty gain additional clinical and research experience in liver transplantation. Anyone with a fellowship or junior faculty position can apply. The deadline is December 29! APPLY NOW
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Perioperative Care in Liver Transplantation Meeting 2019
Orlando 2019
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This meeting was a tremendous success with its highest attendance ever. It featured critical updates on a wide range of topics, including coagulation testing, use of factor concentrates, pre-transplant optimization, treatment of vasoplegia, and DCD and multivisceral transplantation. In its inaugural year, ILTS’s Cardiovascular SIG showcased new knowledge on cirrhotic cardiomyopathy, cardiac imaging, risk stratification, and perioperative management. ILTS thanks all meeting speakers, who graciously agreed to have their lectures recorded. Our society also extends a special congratulations to the program committee, led by Dmitri Bezinover, Ramona Nicolau-Raducu and Sher-Lu Pai, on this outstanding meeting. Join ILTS to view these lectures now!
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ILTS Member
Would you like to get to know our members better? Watch a short video from one of our members, Marit Kalisvaart, who discusses her motivation for specializing in liver transplantation and why you need to attend the ILTS 2020 Congress.
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ILTS is now registered on AmazonSmile!
The holiday season is here and we would like to let you know that ILTS is now registered on AmazonSmile – a platform where you can enjoy the same shopping experience as on Amazon.com, while donating 0.5% of your purchase
price on eligible products to ILTS.
Your donations will go to the ILTS Members’ Fund for Education and contribute to building a worldwide educational network while supporting young researchers and clinicians with annual scholarships, travel grants and funded mentoring programs.
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American Journal of Transplantation
The decreasing predictive power of MELD in an era of changing etiology of liver disease
The field of liver transplantation has shifted considerably in the MELD era, including changing allocation, immunosuppression, and liver failure etiologies, as well as better supportive therapies. Our aim was to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the MELD score over time. Read more
See commentary by Isabel Campos Varela.
Transplantation (FREE TO ILTS MEMBERS)
Preoperative Assessment of Muscle Mass Using Computerized Tomography Scans to Predict Outcomes Following Orthotopic Liver Transplantation
Sarcopenia is an established risk factor predicting survival in chronically ill and trauma patients. We herein examine the assessment and clinical implication of sarcopenia in liver transplantation (LT).
Computerized tomography scans from 172 patients waitlisted for LT were analyzed by applying 6 morphometric muscle scores, including 2 density indices (psoas density [PD] and skeletal muscle density [SMD]) and 4 scores based on muscle area (total psoas area, psoas muscle index, skeletal muscle area, and skeletal muscle index). Read more
See commentary by Isabel Campos Varela.
Transplantation (FREE TO ILTS MEMBERS)
Liver Transplantation Using Uncontrolled Donors After Circulatory Death: A 10- Year Single-Center Experience
One method for increasing the donor pool for orthotopic liver transplantations (OLTs) is to use uncontrolled donation after circulation death (uDCDs).
From January 2006 to December 2016, we performed 75 OLTs using uDCD livers. The control group comprised a sample of 265 OLTs using livers of donations after brain death (DBDs). A comparative study was performed. Read more
Commentary by Amelia Judith Hessheimer.
Transplantation (FREE TO ILTS MEMBERS)
Area Under Trough Concentrations of Tacrolimus as a Predictor of Progressive Renal Impairment After Liver Transplantation
Tacrolimus minimization is usually restricted to patients with pretransplant renal impairment, and this strategy could result into worse renal outcomes after liver transplantation (LT).
A consecutive cohort of 455 LT patients receiving tacrolimus-based immunosuppression was studied (2008-2013). Cumulative exposure to tacrolimus was calculated as the area under curve of trough concentrations (AUCtc). Read more
See commentary by Isabel Campos Varela.
Transplantation (FREE TO ILTS MEMBERS)
Effects of intraoperative fluid balance during liver transplantation on postoperative acute kidney injury: an observational cohort study
Liver transplant recipients suffer many postoperative complications. Few studies evaluated the effects of fluid management on these complications. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the association between intraoperative fluid balance and postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) and other postoperative complications. Read more
See commentary by Michael Spiro.
Liver Transplantation
Is Portal Inflow Modulation Always Necessary for Successful Utilization of Small Volume Living Donor Liver Grafts?
The aim of this study was to evaluate outcome for the 4 possible combinations (temporary portocaval shunt with initial arterial reperfusion [A+S+], temporary portocaval shunt with initial portal reperfusion, no temporary portocaval shunt with initial arterial reperfusion, and no temporary portocaval shunt with initial portal reperfusion) in a center-based cohort study, including liver transplantations (LTs) from both donation after brain death and donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors. Read more
Commentary by Amelia Judith Hessheimer.
Liver Transplantation
Intraoperative Events in Liver Transplantation Using Donation After Circulatory Death Donors
Liver grafts from donation after circulatory death (DCD) are a source of organs to decrease wait-list mortality. While there have been lower rates of graft loss, there are concerns of an increased incidence of intraoperative events in recipients of DCD grafts. We aim to look at the incidence of intraoperative events between recipients of livers from DCD and donation after brain death (DBD) donors. Read more
See commentary by Michael Spiro.
Transplant International
Transient hyperthermia during oxygenated rewarming of isolated rat livers
Pretransplant machine perfusion of donor grafts has gained clinical appreciation to improve graft function and survival after transplantation. This study was aimed as pilot investigation to evaluate the additive potential of a transient ex vivo heat shock treatment of the isolated organ during machine perfusion to further protect the graft from subsequent reperfusion injury. Read more
Commentary by Amelia Judith Hessheimer.
Digestive Diseases and Sciences
A Randomized Control Trial of Thromboelastography-Guided Transfusion in Cirrhosis for High-Risk Invasive Liver-Related Procedures
Hemostasis in cirrhosis is dynamic and balanced. Thromboelastography (TEG) assesses global coagulation status. We aimed to assess whether TEG-guided blood product transfusions result in lower blood product requirements in patients with cirrhosis undergoing invasive liver-related procedures as compared to the conventional standard of care (SOC). Read more
See commentary by Michael Spiro.
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Last Month
1. Comparison Between Swan-Ganz Catheter and Minimally Invasive Hemodynamic Monitoring During Liver Transplantation: Report of a Monocentric Case Series. (link)
2. Sarcopenia Predicts Post-transplant Mortality in Acutely Ill Men Undergoing Urgent Evaluation and Liver Transplantation.(link)
3. Incidence and Risks for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Steatohepatitis Post-liver Transplant: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. (link)
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2019
1. Recipient age and mortality after liver transplantation: A population-based cohort study (link)
2. Immune-mediated graft dysfunction in liver transplant recipients with hepatitis C virus treated with direct-acting antiviral therapy (link)
3. ILTS consensus statement on end-stage liver disease due to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and liver transplantation (link)
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