Abstract
Acute rejection, occurring with a reported frequency of 50–70%, is still a dominating problem after liver transplantation. Medication with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has beneficial effects in different cholestatic conditions and has also been shown to reduce HLA class I antigen expression on hepatocytes in patients with PBC. Since August 1989 we have consecutively treated all patients with primary graft function with UDCA (n = 41). Patients transplanted in the first half of 1989 served as a control group (n = 8). All patients in this study were given sequential quadruple drug immunosuppression. The treatment group were given oral UDCA 10 mg/kg per day. During the first postoperative month, 17% of the UDCA-treated patients had an episode of acute rejection compared with 75% of the control patients (P < 0.01). Liver biochemistry tests 1 month postoperatively were significantly better in patients treated with UDCA. The results suggest that adjuvant treatment with UDCA reduces acute liver graft rejection.
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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Friman, S., Persson, H., Scherstén, T., Svanvik, J., Karlberg, I. (1992). Adjuvant treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid reduces acute rejection after liver transplantation. In: Kootstra, G., Opelz, G., Buurman, W.A., van Hooff, J.P., MacMaster, P., Wallwork, J. (eds) Transplant International Official Journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77423-2_58
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77423-2_58
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