Impact of the first Covid-19 outbreak on liver transplantation activity in France: A snapshot

Célia Turco; Chetana Lim; Olivier Soubrane; Géraldine Malaquin; François Kerbaul; Olivier Bastien; Filomena Conti; Olivier Scatton

doi:10.1016/j.clinre.2020.10.005

Impact of the first Covid-19 outbreak on liver transplantation activity in France: A snapshot

Clin Res Hepatol Gastroenterol. 2021 Jul;45(4):101560. doi: 10.1016/j.clinre.2020.10.005. Epub 2020 Nov 8.

Authors

Célia Turco¹, Chetana Lim², Olivier Soubrane³, Géraldine Malaquin⁴, François Kerbaul⁵, Olivier Bastien⁴, Filomena Conti⁶, Olivier Scatton⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Digestive, Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery and Liver Transplantation, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France; Department of Digestive and Oncologic Surgery, Liver Transplantation Unit, University Hospital of Besançon, Besançon, France.
² Department of Digestive, Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery and Liver Transplantation, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France.
³ Department of Hepato-Biliary, Liver Transplantation, and Pancreatic Surgery, Hospital Beaujon, Clichy, France; University Paris Diderot, Paris, France; INSERM U1149, Paris, France.
⁴ Agence de la Biomédecine, France.
⁵ Agence de la Biomédecine, France; UMR C2VN (Centre de recherche en Cardiovasculaire et Nutrition), INRA-INSERM-AMU, Equipe Système adénosinergique, dysoxie, inflammation, Aix Marseille Université, France.
⁶ Department of Hepatology, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France; Sorbonne Université, Paris, France; Centre de Recherche de Saint-Antoine (CRSA), INSERM, UMRS-938, Paris, France.
⁷ Department of Digestive, Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery and Liver Transplantation, AP-HP Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France. Electronic address: [email protected].

Abstract

Background: The global pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has potentially affected liver transplantation (LT) programs worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine whether the COVID-19 outbreak affected organ donation and LT activity in France.

Methods: Data on the number of brain-dead donor procurements and adult liver transplantations were compared between two periods (1^st January- 31^st May 2019 vs. 1^st January-31^st May 2020).

Main findings: There was a 28% decrease in the number of organ donations in 2020 (543 in 2020vs. 752 organ donations in 2019). A 22% decrease in the number of liver transplantations was also observed: 435 in 2020 vs. 556 LTs in 2019. Overall, the North East area which was the main COVID-19 cluster area, had > 25% decrease of the multiorgan procurement (-33% compared to 2019), and liver transplantation (-26% compared to 2019) activities in 2020 CONCLUSION: This analysis confirmed that during the COVID-19 outbreak there was a significant decrease in the number of organ donations and liver transplantations performed in France.

Keywords: coronavirus; liver procurement; liver transplantation.

MeSH terms

Adult
Brain Death
COVID-19 / epidemiology*
France / epidemiology
Humans
Liver Transplantation / statistics & numerical data*
Pandemics*
Retrospective Studies
Tissue and Organ Procurement / statistics & numerical data*