Background: Patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT) can develop acute heart failure (HF) in the postoperative period despite having had a normal cardiac evaluation prior to surgery. End-stage liver disease is often associated with underlying cardiac dysfunction which, while not identified during preoperative testing, manifests itself during or immediately after surgery.
Case presentation: We describe three cases of non-ischemic acute HF developing shortly after LT in patients who had a normal preoperative cardiac evaluation. The challenges associated with both diagnosis and management of acute HF in the setting of a newly implanted graft will be discussed.
Conclusions: Diastolic dysfunction, QTc interval prolongation, and an increase in BNP may be predictive of postoperative HF. Current recommendations for preoperative cardiovascular evaluation of transplant candidates does not include studies examining these risk factors and should be revised. Further investigations are necessary to evaluate these findings.
Keywords: Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy; Heart failure; Liver transplantation.