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Two cases of pressure ulcer healing after liver transplantation in cirrhosis patients.

Inui S, Harada T, Nakajima T, Itami S

Department of Regenerative Dermatology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan. inui@r-derma.med.osaka-u.ac.jp

We report two cases of pressure ulcers in liver cirrhosis patients. In case 1, a 64-year-old Japanese woman had suffered from liver cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C virus and developed a pressure ulcer on her sacral and coccygeal area due to long-term bedrest. After she received a living donor liver transplantation from her child, the ulcer healed synchronizing with improvement of serum cholinesterase and bilirubin. Likewise, her systemic condition also got much better after the transplantation. In case 2, a 53-year-old Japanese man with hepatitis B virus cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma developed a pressure ulcer on his sacral area. Although he received a living donor liver transplantation from his brother, his general status and pressure ulcer were fluctuating in conformity with the variance of serum bilirubin. However, at 5 weeks after the transplantation, the ulcer gradually started improving, entrained to serum bilirubin decrease. From these findings, the condition of the pressure ulcer in liver cirrhosis patients synchronized with serum bilirubin as well as systemic condition, suggesting a possible influence of bilirubin for wound healing.

Published 30 May 2007 in J Dermatol, 34(6): 400-2.
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