Trends and Health Care Outcomes Among Living Liver Donors: Are We Ready to Expand the Donor Pool With Living Liver Donations?

Abstract

We studied the trends and various outcomes, including the readmission rates, health care utilization, and complications among living liver donors (LLDs) in the United States. We queried the National Database for data from 2010 to 2017 for all LLDs. The primary outcomes were 30‐day and 90‐day readmission rates. The secondary outcomes included health care use (length of stay [LOS], cost of care), index admission, and calendar‐year mortality. Logistic regression models were fit for various outcomes. A total of 1316 LLDs underwent hepatectomy during the study period. The median donor age was 35.0 years (interquartile range, 27.4‐43.6), and donors were predominantly women (54.2%). The trend of LLD surgeries remained stable at large medical centers (85.3%). The 30‐day and 90‐day readmission rates were low at 5% and 5.9%, respectively. Older age (50 years and older; 8%; confidence interval [CI], 0.6%‐15.9%; P = 0.03) and hepatectomy at small to medium‐sized hospitals were associated with increased index LOS (13.4%; 95% CI, 3.1%‐24.7%; P = 0.01). Moreover, older age of donor (−11.3%; 95% CI, −20.3% to −1.4%; P = 0.03), Elixhauser score ≥3 (17%; 95% CI, 1.2%‐35.3%; P = 0.03), and Medicaid insurance (24.5%; 95% CI, 1.2%‐53.1%; P = 0.04) were also associated with increased cost. The overall rate of any complications during index admission was 42.8%. Male sex (odds ratio [OR], 1.63; 95% CI, 1.19‐2.23) was an independent predictor of post‐LLD complications. There was no index admission or calendar‐year mortality reported during the study period. This is the largest national report of LLDs to date, showing that the trend of LLD surgeries is stable in the United States. With established safety, fewer complications, and less health care utilization, LLDs can be a potential source of continuation of liver transplantation in the context of changing liver allocation policies in the United States.