ESPE Abstracts

Context: Acute or chronic metabolic derangement after solid organ transplantation (SOT) can result in endocrine complications. As survival rates following SOT have significantly increased, the occurrence of endocrine complications has also risen.

Objective: This study was performed to investigate long-term endocrine complications after SOT in children and adolescents.

Methods: This study included 259 pediatric patients who underwent SOT including kidney (n = 43), liver (n = 170), lung (n = 5), heart (n = 37), and multi-organ (n = 4). Patients who were followed up for at least 5 years after SOT were included. Clinical and endocrinological findings were collected retrospectively.

Results: Among a total of 259 patients, 203 (78.4%) experienced at least one endocrine complication during the median follow-up duration of 126 months (range, 66–202). Short stature was prevalent in kidney (58.1%) and multi-organ recipients (100%), whereas liver recipients exhibited the highest rate of obesity (43.5%). Patients who underwent kidney or liver transplantation at age younger than 13 years demonstrated significant improvement of height-SDS for 5 years after SOT, and discontinuation of corticosteroids reduced risk of short stature after 10 years of liver transplantation. Post-transplant DM was prevalent in heart recipients (27%). Dyslipidemia, hypothyroidism, osteoporosis, and delayed puberty were observed in 40.2%, 2.7%, 31.3%, and 1.5%, respectively.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that endocrine and metabolic complications were prevalent in pediatric patients following SOT during the follow-up period. Surveillance and management of endocrine sequela is essential to improve quality of life for patients who underwent SOT.