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M Wilford

Publications and source records attributed to M Wilford.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Liver transplantation at the Cuban Center for Medical and Surgical Research.

From July 4, 1999, when a liver transplantation program was started in Cuba, to October 2003, 66 procedures had been performed in 60 patients. The most frequent reason was cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C virus (29%), and alcoholic cirrhosis (22%). Two patients received simultaneous liver-kidney transplants. Half of the patients were men. Patient ages ranged from 12 to 62 years; the average surgical time was 6 hours; and cold ischemia time was 4 to 14 hours. The average blood consumption was 2033 mL; 2900 mL of plasma and 8 units of platelets were used in 7 cases. Immunosuppression was mainly cyclosporine (Neoral), mycophenolate mofetil or azathioprine, and prednisone. Acute cellular rejections were treated in almost all cases with 3 doses of methylprednisolone. The most frequent complications were biliary (24%), hepatic arterial thrombosis (12%), post-surgical bleeding (10%), acute cellular rejection (24%), and ductopenic rejection (2%). The overall 1-year survival rate was 73.7%.

Cuba↗

The transplantation donation process in the Centro de Investigaciones Medico Quirurgicas of Cuba: 1999-2002.

OBJECTIVE: In 1998 in the Centro de Investigaciones Medico Quirurgicas the Transplant Coordination Office (TCO) was created, with the aim to organize a system to support a hepatic transplantation program. This organization, which changed the transplantation-donation process not only in our center but in the whole country, is described in this article. METHOD: The files of donors generated in our hospital were studied together with the transplant coordination records, from 1999 till the first half of 2002. RESULTS: In the period studied, 21 potential donors were diagnosed with brain death, yielding a donation rate of 71.4%. Brain death was most frequently caused by vascular brain disease; however, in the realized donor group, the cranioencephalic trauma predominated. The typical donor was a man of average age 39.2 years (range, 18-86 years). Among the potential donors, 24% were excluded based on medical criteria, and 5% due to family objections. Forty liver transplantation were performed in 36 patients including 1 liver-kidney simultaneous procedure. The principal etiologies for transplant included hepatitis C virus cirrhosis, 22%; alcoholic, 19%; and acute hepatic failure, 13%. Kidney transplantations were performed in 70 patients, including 41 from cadaveric donors (53.6%) and 29 from living related donors (41.4%). In 2001, a pancreas-kidney transplantation program was started. CONCLUSION: The creation of the TCO has been of paramount importance to optimize transplantation program functions.

Adolescent↗