Minocycline Administration During Human Liver Transplantation
Status:
Withdrawn
Trial end date:
2016-03-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Liver transplantation is the sole therapy for end-stage liver diseases and acute liver
failure in children and adults. However, use of this life-saving technique is limited due to
a severe shortage of donor livers. The number of transplants currently performed is
approximately one-third of the number needed to accommodate the more than 16,000 patients
awaiting an organ in the US. Over 20% of patients on the liver transplant waiting list die
prior to transplantation due to organ shortages. The median waiting time in 2011 was over 300
days. Poor immediate graft function and primary non function (PNF) are clinically significant
events, especially in recipients of marginal livers (elderly donors, extended cold storage
time, or steatosis). PNF has dramatic effects on patient morbidity and mortality,
necessitating prolonged and expensive stays in intensive care units, and re-transplantation
is the only life-saving therapy in patients with failing liver grafts due to PNF. This
further exerts greater burden on the already scarce donor organ pool. Furthermore, biliary
strictures and ischemic cholangiopathy, as a result of severe ischemia reperfusion injury,
cause prolonged hospital stay, long-term complications, and increased costs. Targeted
treatments, such as the one proposed in this application, will reduce the need for
re-transplantation, reduce biliary injury, and potentially increase the number of donor
organs available.