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Frailty and Outcomes After Liver Transplantation

  • Frailty and Gerontology (M McAdams Demarco, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Transplantation Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Frailty is an emerging concept in liver transplantation. We reviewed the literature for the tests of frailty which have been validated to predict outcomes in patients with cirrhosis evaluated for liver transplantation.

Recent Findings

Several tools have been developed to further stratify risk of adverse events independent of liver disease severity. These include tests of disability such as activities of daily living and the Karnofsky Performance Score, as well as tests of physical frailty, such as the Liver Frailty Index (handgrip, chair stands, and balance).

Summary

Increasingly, the frailty assessment is seen as a critical component of the liver transplant evaluation. Further research is needed to clarify the optimal timing of testing and the implications of longitudinal change.

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Funding

Elliot Tapper receives funding from the National Institutes of Health through the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (KL2TR002241).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Michigan, 3912 Taubman, SPC 5362, 1500 E Medical Center Dr, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Elliot B. Tapper

  2. Gastroenterology Section, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Elliot B. Tapper

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  1. Elliot B. Tapper
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Correspondence to Elliot B. Tapper.

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Conflict of Interest

Elliot Tapper reports grants from Valeant and Gilead and personal fees from Novartis for a fatty liver disease study.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Elliot Tapper is the guarantor of this article.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Frailty and Gerontology

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Tapper, E.B. Frailty and Outcomes After Liver Transplantation. Curr Transpl Rep 6, 1–6 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40472-019-0222-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40472-019-0222-4

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