Trends in invasive fungal infections in liver transplant recipients: Correlation with evolution in transplantation practices

The incidence of invasive fungal infections, particularly invasive candidiasis, after liver transplantation is strongly influenced by surgical factors and technical complexity of the surgery. We assessed the temporal trends in invasive fungal infections in the context of evolution in liver transplantation practices, technical developments, and other risk factors. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients, transplantation-related variables, and rates of infection were longitudinally analyzed over the last 10 years in 190 consecutive liver transplant recipients at our institution. Trends for categorical data were evaluated using the Cochran-Armitage trend test and for continuous variables using analysis of variance with linear contrast. A decrease in the length of operation (P=0.03), intraoperative transfusion requirements (P=0.0001), cold ischemic time (P