Background: In recent years, the number of liver transplantations for advanced-stage liver diseases has considerably increased and the patients have a wide range of dermatologic manifestations.
Aim: This study aims to reveal cutaneous, mucosal, and nail lesions in liver transplant recipients in quite large patient series.
Patients/methods: The study included 520 patients in the Inonu University Liver Transplantation Institute. New and followed-up patients attended to the study between May and October 2019. The patients were examined by a dermatologist, and their data were recorded.
Results: The study included 163 female and 357 male patients with the main age of 44.20 ± 18.18 (range: 1-83 years), and 465 livers (89.4%) were taken from live donors, while 54 livers (10.4%) were taken from cadavers. A total of 314 (60.4%) patients had dermatophyte infections, 174 (33.4%) patients had pathological nail changes, and 427 (82.1%) patients had oral mucosal lesions. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) developed in 9 (1.73%) patients after the transplantation, and 5 patients died of GVHD. Four patients had cutaneous malignancies.
Conclusions: Tumoral and nontumoral dermatological diseases may be encountered following the transplantation depending on underlying liver disease, immunosuppressive treatment, the graft itself, or any primary cutaneous disease. Liver transplantation recipients require a multidisciplinary clinical approach, and dermatological care must be an integral part of this approach.
Keywords: cutaneous findings; liver; mucosal and nail findings; skin findings; transplantation.
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