Background: Skin manifestations after liver transplantation are increasing due to long term immunosuppressive therapy along with an increase in patient survival. Several studies have reported dermatologic complications following renal transplant, but few have studied dermatologic problems after liver transplantation.
Aims: To describe the different types of cutaneous lesions encountered in adults receiving a liver allograft. To evaluate the frequency of cutaneous manifestations of patients in the liver transplant waiting list.
Material and methods: Eighty patients submitted to a liver transplant and 70 patients in the liver transplant waiting list were evaluated with a complete dermatological physical examination.
Results: Sixty one percent of patients with a liver allograft had at least one skin manifestation. Of these, 34% had superficial fungal infections, 31% had viral infections, 20% had cutaneous side effects due to immunosuppressive treatment, 10% had malignant lesions, 2% had bacterial infections and one patient had a graft versus host disease. Only 28% of patients in the liver transplant waiting list had dermatologic problems, and the vast majority were lesions linked to liver cirrhosis.
Conclusions: Cutaneous infections were the most common skin problems in liver transplant patients. Although neoplastic lesions are the most commonly mentioned lesions in the literature, only a 10% of our liver transplant patients presented these type of lesions.