The predictive value of blood neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in patients with end-stage liver cirrhosis following ABO-incompatible liver transplantation

Background: The study was designed to assess the role of preoperative neutrophil, lymphocyte, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in predicting survival outcomes of ABO-incompatible liver transplantation (LT). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively collected the demographic and clinical characteristics of 71 patients with end-stage liver cirrhosis following ABO-incompatible LT in this study. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox multiple factors regression analysis were performed to determine the independent risk factors from preoperative blood parameters for poor prognosis. Results: The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival were 94.9%, 80.0%, and 80.0% in the normal NLR group, respectively, and 59.4%, 55,4%, and 55.4% in patients with up-regulated NLR, respectively (P = 0.001). Furthermore, no significant difference was observed on post-LT complications between normal NLR and high-NLR groups. The high NLR was identified as the only independent prognostic risk factor for recipient survival (P = 0.015, 95% confidence interval = 3.573 [1.284–9.943]). Conclusion: The preoperative high NLR could be considered as a convenient and available indicator for selecting ABO-incompatible LT candidates.