Advances in the medical and surgical treatments of intestinal failure have led to a decrease in the number of transplants over the past decade. In 2012, 152 candidates were added to the intestinal transplant waiting list, a new low. Of these, 64 were listed for intestine-liver transplant and 88 for intestinal transplant alone or with an organ other than liver. Historically, the most common organ transplanted with the intestine was the liver; this practice decreased substantially from a peak of 52.9% in 2007 to 30.0% in 2012. Short-gut syndrome, which encompasses a large group of diagnoses, is the most common etiology of intestinal failure. The pretransplant mortality rate decreased dramatically over time for all age groups, from 51.0 per 100 wait-list years in 1998-1999 to 6.7 for patients listed in 2010-2012. Numbers of intestinal and intestine-liver transplants steadily decreased from 198 in 2007 to 106 in 2012. By age, intestinal transplant recipients have changed substantially; the number of adult recipients now approximately equals the number of pediatric recipients. Graft survival has improved over the past decade. Graft failure in the first 90 days after transplant occurred in 15.7% of 2011-2012 intestinal transplant recipients, compared with 21% in 2001-2002.
Keywords: Intestinal failure; intestinal transplant; liver-intestine transplant; waiting list.
© Copyright 2013 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.