Steroid‐free immunosuppression during and after liver transplantation – a 3‐yr follow‐up report

Abstract:  Background/aims: Steroids are traditionally used in liver transplantation as a part of a triple or quadruple immunosuppressive regimen. Steroids act non‐specifically and cause multiple side‐effects. Most liver transplantation centers reduce the dosage of steroids and eventually withdraw them after various time intervals. A few steroid‐free trials have been recently conducted after liver transplantation but long‐term data are not yet available. In addition, in these trials steroids were usually given during surgery. We report the long‐term (median = 40 months) follow‐up data of a prospective pilot study designed to determine whether liver transplantation could be performed with no steroids at all (neither during nor after surgery).

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