Risk of biliary tract disease in living liver donors: A population-based cohort study.

• Main Authors: Shih-Yi Lin, Cheng-Li Lin, Wu-Huei Hsu, I-Kuan Wang, Cheng-Chieh Lin, Long-Bing Jeng, Chia-Hung Kao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230840

<h4>Background & aims</h4>Whether living liver donors have a higher risk of biliary tract disease compared with non-donors remains unknown.<h4>Methods</h4>Data were collected from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database for the 2003-2011 period. The study cohort comprised 1,446 patients aged ≥ 18 years who had served as living liver donors. The primary outcome was the incidence of biliary tract disease. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to determine the hazard ratios.<h4>Results</h4>The incidence density rate of biliary tract disease was 13.9-fold higher in the liver donor (LD) cohort than in the non-LD cohort (10.2 vs. 0.71 per 1,000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 14.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7.73-26.1). Stratified by comorbidity, the relative risk of biliary tract disease was higher in the LD cohort than in the non-LD cohort for both patients with or without comorbidity. The incidence density rate of biliary tract disease was significantly higher in the first 3 years (13.5 per 1,000 person-years in the LD cohort). The highest adjusted HR of biliary tract disease for LD patients compared with the non-LD cohort was 22.4 (95% CI = 10.8-46.1) in the follow-up ≤ 3 years.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Living liver donors had a higher risk of biliary tract disease compared with non-donors.