A Vitamin D Protocol Post Liver Transplantation
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Adults with compromised liver function are inherently deficient and especially vulnerable to the consequences of vitamin D deficiency. Consequences of vitamin D deficiency include liver disease progression, infection, and graft failure. A vitamin D supplementation protocol is proposed to systematically optimize serum vitamin D levels in both pre and post liver transplanted patients. This quasi-experimental study used convenience sampling for 45 post liver transplant patients at a large academic facility. The measurable outcome in the three-month study was the serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels post supplementation protocol. Seventy-eight percent of patients reached minimum guideline levels using the protocol with an average increase of serum vitamin D of 13.8ng/mL. Long-term outcomes of clinical significance may include decreased incidence of acute cellular graft rejection and infections in the immune compromised patient. Optimizing vitamin D in vulnerable patient populations such as chronic liver disease and the immune-suppressed post-transplanted patient has the potential to curtail complications of vitamin D deficiency. As a result, employing a vitamin D protocol can have a favorable impact on patient quality of life, safety, and healthcare spending.
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Open Access (fully available)