Black recipients of liver transplants have lower post-transplant survival rates than white or Hispanic patients, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC
Brian P. Lee, MD, MAS, a hepatologist and liver transplant specialist with Keck Medicine, and his colleagues discovered that during a period of 2002-2018, Black patients had a 15% higher chance of dying after a liver transplant than white or Hispanic patients.
From 2017-2018, they had a 60% higher chance of dying after a liver transplant than white recipients.
Additionally, they found that Black recipients had a higher severity of liver disease at the time of transplant and tended to die more often from acute or chronic organ rejection.
“We were very surprised by these results because almost 20 years ago, a landmark study showed that Black patients who underwent liver transplants had lower post-transplant survival rates than white and Hispanic patients, and since then, the field has made numerous interventions to try to narrow the gap,” said Lee.
Disparity
“It is eye-opening that not only does this disparity still exist, it’s gotten worse.
“The proportion of alcohol-associated liver disease among Black liver-transplant recipients almost doubled from 2002-2005 to 2014-2018, outpacing a 36% relative increase in the disease among white liver-transplant recipients. In addition, Black liver-transplant recipients with alcohol-associated liver disease had a lower survival rate than white liver-transplant recipients with alcohol-associated liver disease.
“Our findings are a huge wake-up call that physicians and other health care professionals need to do better in delivering equitable care. Hopefully, we can begin to invest in interventions that acknowledge previously undiscovered causes of inequity that will successfully narrow the disparity gap in liver transplant survival rates.”
Researchers analysed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing registry and studied the post-transplant life expectancy of approximately 47,000 Black, Hispanic and white liver transplant recipients between 2002 and 2018.
