BACKGROUND:

Whether diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with a higher risk of perioperative mortality and mortality after liver transplantation (LTx) remains unclear.

METHODS:

We compared the risk of postoperative mortality and morbidity in DM and non-DM patients undergoing LTx. We enrolled 558 DM patients who underwent LTx from 2000 to 2010.

RESULTS:

DM was associated with elevated 90-day risk of post-LTx stroke. Otherwise, the DM cohort did not exhibit significantly higher risks of postoperative morbidities, such as septicemia, pneumonia, and wound infection, than the non-DM cohort. Cox proportional hazards regression model showed that patients with DM with coexisting renal manifestations were at a significantly high risk of 30-day and 90-day postoperative mortality. Further comorbidity stratification analysis showed that DM cohort exhibited higher risk of mortality than the non-DM cohort if the patients had liver cancer, or did not have hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

CONCLUSION:

DM is associated with elevated risk of 90-day post-LTx. Moreover, DM patients with coexisting renal manifestations exhibited an increased postoperative risk of mortality after LTx.