Abstract

Adolescents constitute a unique waitlist cohort that is distinct from younger children. MELD 3.0, which was developed in an adult population of liver transplant candidates, is planned to replace MELD-Na in the current liver allocation system for both adult and adolescents aged 12-17. We evaluated the predictive performance of MELD-Na, MELD 3.0, and PELD, for 90-day waitlist mortality risk among adolescent liver transplant registrants.New waitlist registrations for primary liver transplant among individuals aged 12-17 and aged 18-25 for comparison were identified using OPTN data from Nov 17 2004 to Dec 31 2021. The predictive performance of the current and proposed MELD and PELD scores was assessed using the Harrell's concordance (c) statistic.There were 1,238 eligible listings for adolescents aged 12-17, and 1,740 young adults aged 18-25. In the adolescent group, 90-day survival was 97.8%, compared to 95.9% in those aged 18-25 (log-rank p = 0.005), with no significant differences when stratified by sex or indication. Among adolescents, increasing MELD 3.0 was associated with an increased hazard of mortality (HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.18-1.37), and the c-statistic for 90-day waitlist survival using MELD 3.0 was 0.893, compared with 0.871 using MELD-Na, and 0.852 using PELD.The discriminative ability of MELD 3.0 to rank adolescents according to the risk of death within 90 days was robust. Although MELD 3.0 was initially developed and validated in adults, MELD 3.0 may also improve the prediction of waitlist mortality in adolescents and better represent their urgency for liver transplant.

View details for DOI 10.1097/HEP.0000000000000352

View details for PubMedID 36943091