Serious acid-base disorder or life-threatening arrhythmia in patients with ABO-incompatible liver transplantation who received therapeutic plasma exchange - A report of two cases.

Background: Excessive citrate load during therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) can cause metabolic alkalosis with compensatory hypercarbia and electrolyte disturbances. If TPE is required immediately before ABO-incompatible (ABOi) liver transplant (LT) surgery, metabolic derangement and severe electrolyte disturbance could worsen during LT anesthesia.

Case: We report two ABOi LT cases who received TPE on the day of surgery because isoagglutinin titers did not be dropped below 1:8. One case had a surprisingly high metabolic alkalosis with a pH of 7.73 immediately after tracheal intubation because of hyperventilation during mask bagging. The other experienced sudden ventricular tachycardia and blood pressure drop after surgical incision accompanied with severe hypokalemia of 1.8 mmol/L despite supplementation with potassium.

Conclusions: Special attention should be paid to patients who just completed TPE the operative day morning as they are vulnerable to severe acid-base disturbances and life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias in ABOi LT.