A Three Decade Analysis of Trends in Length of Stay After Liver Transplantation.
Spoorthi Kamepalli, Cameron Goff, Liam Ferreira and 4 others
PMID 40105514WHAT IT FOUND
Hospital stays after adult liver transplantation fell from 51.5 days in 1987 to 16.3 days in 2021, with the steepest decline before 2000 and little change after 2000.
Longer stays were linked to ICU admission, dialysis, ventilator use, and lower function at transplant.
Key findings
01Mean hospital length of stay fell from 51.5 days in 1987 to 16.3 days in 2021, with the steepest decline before 2000.
02After adjustment, ICU admission, dialysis in the week before transplant, and ventilator use were the strongest factors associated with longer stay.
03Higher functional status at transplant was associated with shorter stay, while Region 9 was associated with longer stay and Region 3 with shorter stay.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was an observational registry analysis, so it cannot show that any treatment, care process, or nursing action caused the shorter stays. Data came from a mandatory national registry, so missing or erroneous entries may affect results; some variables were imputed. Center-level characteristics could not be analyzed, so differences between transplant programs cannot be explained. Values for 2021 may be less robust because data collection was incomplete.
Declared interests
The authors reported no financial support and no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that shorter length of stay proves better quality of care or that a specific intervention reduced stay. The study is observational and describes trends and associations, not causal effects.