• Sergio Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Antonio Olivas-Martinez, Jesus Delgado-de la Mora, Braulio Martinez-Benitez, Ignacio Garcia-Juarez, and Roberta Demichelis-Gomez.
• Department of Hematology and Oncology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (INCMNSZ), Mexico City, Mexico.
• Rev Invest Clin. 2024 Mar 1; 76 (1): 182818-28.

BackgroundIron overload is frequent in patients with chronic liver disease, associated with shorter survival after liver transplantation in patients with hereditary hemochromatosis. Its effect on patients without hereditary hemochromatosis is unclear. The aim of the study was to study the clinical impact of iron overload in patients who underwent liver transplantation at an academic tertiary referral center.MethodsWe performed a retrospective cohort study including all patients without hereditary hemochromatosis who underwent liver transplantation from 2015 to 2017 at an academic tertiary referral center in Mexico City. Explant liver biopsies were reprocessed to obtain the histochemical hepatic iron index, considering a score ≥ 0.15 as iron overload. Baseline characteristics were compared between patients with and without iron overload. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, compared with the log-rank test and the Cox proportional hazards model.ResultsOf 105 patients included, 45% had iron overload. Viral and metabolic etiologies, alcohol consumption, and obesity were more frequent in patients with iron overload than in those without iron overload (43% vs. 21%, 32% vs. 22%, p = 0.011; 34% vs. 9%, p = 0.001; and 32% vs. 12%, p = 0.013, respectively). Eight patients died within 90 days after liver transplantation (one with iron overload). Complication rate was higher in patients with iron overload versus those without iron overload (223 vs. 93 events/100 personmonths; median time to any complication of 2 vs. 3 days, p = 0.043), without differences in complication type. Fatality rate was lower in patients with iron overload versus those without iron overload (0.7 vs. 4.5 deaths/100 person-months, p = 0.055).ConclusionDetecting iron overload might identify patients at risk of early complications after liver transplantation. Further studies are required to understand the role of iron overload in survival.

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