General Aspects of Early Management

Liver transplantation (LT) should be considered a complex procedure that is not confined to the surgical act but includes several post-operative events, making it a long-term care plan. In this respect, the early complications may be directly related to the operation (such as vascular, biliary complications, or bowel perforations), to the peri-operative intensive care management, to donor and recipient characteristics, and to the host immune response. The focus of this chapter is twofold: it aims both to give an overview of general post-operative management and to highlight certain aspects of post-transplant care that are not covered elsewhere in this monograph.