Hyperbaric Therapy in Patients Undergoing Liver Transplantation: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Introduction: Patients with liver disease generally have a serious clinical condition that can rapidly worsen, making the wait until liver transplantation or post-surgery a poor prognosis. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has therefore been described in some studies as an alternative in these cases, as it mitigates the effects of the diseases and liver transplantation. Objective: To describe the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the pre- and post-operative periods of patients undergoing liver transplantation. Methods: This is an Integrative Review using the PubMed and Web Of Science databases. The following descriptors were used: “Hyperbaric oxygenation”, “Liver transplantation” and “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy” with the Boolean operator “AND”, and articles of relevance to the topic were selected. Initially, 49 articles were selected, all published in the last 20 years, in Portuguese and/or English. After analysis, 6 articles matched the proposed objective. Results: It can be seen that intraoperative systemic O2 content affects postoperative recovery in patients undergoing liver transplantation. Early hyperbaric oxygen therapy acts as a protector in reducing the severity of hepatocyte ischemia/reperfusion injury. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy also influences the immune response of patients undergoing liver transplantation, reducing incompatibility. Still on the subject of the immunomodulatory effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, this therapy has been shown to be effective in helping to prevent post-operative infections by improving the antibacterial activity of immune cells and increasing the bactericidal effect of antibiotics. In the case of patients on the waiting list for liver transplants, a reduction in the number and intensity of encephalopathy episodes, an improvement in pruritus and a feeling of well-being were observed after treatment with oxygen therapy. In terms of early allograft dysfunction, it was shown that patients with dysfunction had lower O2 values in the anepathic and neo-hepatic phases when compared to patients without dysfunction in the post-operative period. In addition, during the anepathic phase, the content of the SatO2 level was also lower in the group with dysfunction than in those without. Conclusion: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is beneficial in liver preservation, as it helps to maintain liver function, prolong liver preservation time and improve the outcome of liver transplantation.