Circadian Rhythms Have Effects on Surgical Outcomes of Liver Transplantation for Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Retrospective Analysis of 147 Cases in a Single Center.

Aim: To investigate the impact of circadian rhythms on the outcomes of liver transplantation on patients suffering from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data of patients who underwent liver transplantation from 2012 to 2017 in our center. Based on the begin time of transplantation, these patients were separated into 2 groups: day group and night group. The intraoperative and postoperative clinical variables were analyzed to find out the impact of the circadian rhythms. Multivariate analysis was performed to examine strength associations between the begin time of operation and surgical outcomes.
Results: A total of 147 patients were included in this study: 102 patients in the day group and 45 patients in the night group. Compared with the day group, patients in the night group had higher incidence of intraoperative massive hemorrhage (11.1% vs 2.0%, P = .048), more intraoperative blood loss (2168.00 ± 2324.20 mL vs 1405.88 ± 1037.69 mL, P = .040), and more requirement of red blood cells (RBC) suspension (8.59 ± 7.11 u vs 6.37 ± 5.78 u, P = .048). In addition, total operation time in the night group was longer than that in the day group (8.90 ± 1.65 hours vs 8.26 ± 1.69 hours, P = .034), as well as the cold ischemia time (9.35 ± 5.03 hours vs 7.21 ± 3.93 hours, P = .014). Furthermore, the night group had higher incidence of other intraoperative complications (13.3% vs 2.9%, P = .038), postoperative abdominal infection (20.0% vs 6.9%, P = .038), and more hospital cost (37,357.96 ± 6779.96 dollars vs 33,551.75 ± 11,683.38 dollars, P = .045). Moreover, patients in the night group needed longer time to restore hepatic function to normal (21.77 ± 10.91 days vs 17.54 ± 10.80 days, P = .033). Multivariate analysis showed that begin time of operation was the independent risk factor of longer operation time, more blood loss during operation, higher incidence of massive hemorrhage and other intraoperative complications, longer time for restoration of hepatic function to normal, higher incidence of abdominal infection at the early stage after transplantation, and more hospital cost (all P value ≤ .05).
Conclusion: Liver transplantation performed at night was associated with higher incidence of intraoperative and early postoperative complications, as well as higher hospital cost. And these worsened outcomes all could be explained by the influence that circadian rhythms had on patients or medical workers.
(Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.)