Open AccessAcute Liver Injury Among Pediatric Liver Transplantation Recipients With Coronavirus Disease 2019
Author(s) -
Sin Priscila,
Díaz Luis Antonio,
Martínez Mercedes,
Vizcaya Cecilia,
D'Agostino Daniel,
Gana Juan Cristóbal
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.206
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1536-4801
pISSN - 0277-2116
DOI - 10.1097/mpg.0000000000003213
Subject(s) - medicine , liver transplantation , covid-19 , pandemic , complication , transplantation , disease , pediatrics , coronavirus , infectious disease (medical specialty) , virology , outbreak
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is an ongoing pandemic. The occurrence of acute liver injury (ALI) has been reported in liver transplant (LT) recipients; however, the findings on children remain controversial. This is the first extensive, worldwide report on the impact of COVID‐19 on pediatric LT recipients. Our online survey reported 110 pediatric LT recipients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. Of these, 37 were symptomatic and 20 out of them (54%) had complicated COVID‐19, which included ALI and acute liver graft rejection. No mortality was reported. Pediatric LT recipients who had undergone transplantation less than 6 months before contracting COVID‐19 had a greater number of hospital admissions and a higher ALI frequency ( P = 0.013 and P = 0.033, respectively) than those who had undergone transplantation more than 6 months prior. Our study found that COVID‐19 cases among pediatric LT recipients demonstrated a high complication rate. We propose that these patients must be followed up strictly.