Liver transplantation is a potentially curative treatment for terminal stage hepatic diseases. Bacterial infections are the main causes of mortality and morbidity in the early period post liver transplantation. Identifying the risk factors could help in minimizing their development. We prospectively investigated the incidence, characteristics, and risk factors of bacterial infections among the recipients during hospitalization after LT and assigned a predictive score. All 389 consecutive adults who underwent LT at the main referral hospital of LT in Iran during one year were enrolled prospectively in a cohort study. Infection group consisted of 143 recipients (36.8%). Urinary tract and surgical site infections were the most frequent ones. Gram-negative bacteria were more prevalent than Gram-positive ones. Independent risk factors were female sex (relative risks=2.13), age ≤43.5 years (3.70), hospital stay ≥9.5 days (5.22), abdominal reoperation (3.03), vancomycin-resistant Enterococci colonization (5.52), hospitalization three months prior to LT (3.25), mechanical ventilation ≥48 hours (4.93), and renal replacement therapies (13.40). We developed a risk score for the prediction of bacterial infections with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.85 (95% CI, 0.81-0.89) with sensitivity 88% and specificity 64%. In the infection group, mortality was higher than controls (18.9% vs. 2.0%) with longer hospitalization (16 vs. 10 days) (p=<0.001). We detected a high rate of bacterial infections leading to longer hospital stay and higher mortality rate. The formulated risk score can help predict bacterial infections; however, it requires clinical validation in further studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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