Success of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy for the treatment of severe hypoxemia after liver transplantation in a patient with severe hepatopulmonary syndrome

Abstract

Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a rare pulmonary complication of cirrhosis for which the only curative treatment is liver transplantation (LT). Patients with severe HPS prior to LT are at high risk of postoperative complications and mortality, and may develop refractory HPS after LT. To date, no therapeutic strategy has been validated for these patients. To our knowledge, we describe the first case of successful use of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy for severe post-LT hypoxemia in a 23-year-old adult.