Abstract: To determine the prevalence and risk factors of Epstein- Barr virus (EBV) infection after pediatric liver transplantation for patients with biliary atresia. Methods Clinical data of 65 pediatric patients with biliary atresia, who underwent liver transplantation, were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into EBV infection group(n=30) and non-EBV infection group (n=35). The univariate analysis was used to analyse the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative data of patients included. The variables with a P ＜ 0.1 were included in the multivariate Logistic regression analysis of EBV infections after pediatric liver transplantation for patients with biliary atresia. Results A total of 30 cases (46.15%) of pediatric recipients showed EBV infection in 65 cases, of which 23 cases (76.67%) occurred within 3 months after operation. The univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in the ratio of patients younger than 1 year preoperation, EBV serology D+/R-, acute rejection, the usage of mycophenolate mofetil and supratheraputic tacrolimus level between two groups (P＜ 0.05) . The type of graft (P=0.060), input quantity of red blood cell intraoperation (P=0.063) and factors mentioned above were included in the multivariate Logistic regression analysis. It revealed that donor EBV serology positive but recipient negative, acute rejection and supratheraputic tacrolimus level were risk factors of EBV infection for pediatric liver transplantation recipients with biliary atresia. Conclusion Donor EBV serology positive but recipient negative, acute rejection, supratheraputic tacrolimus level are closely related to EBV infection in pediatric recipients with biliary atresia after liver transplantation. Appropriate antiviral drugs should be adopted to prevent EBV infection in high risk patients.

Key words: biliary atresia, liver transplantation, herpesvirus 4, human, risk factors, child