The Development and Appraisal of MELD 3.0 in Liver Diseases: Good Things Never Come Easy.

Abstract

Since its proposal, the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score has been employed to predict short-term mortality among patients with chronic liver disease and those awaiting liver transplantation, serving as the primary criterion for organ allocation. However, as the demographic and epidemiological characteristics of chronic liver disease and liver transplantation have evolved, a range of MELD-related scores has emerged, including MELD-Na, iMELD, delta MELD, MELD XI, MELD-LA, and pediatric end-stage liver disease, culminating in the recently proposed MELD 3.0, which builds upon MELD-Na. This study aimed to comprehensively review and summarize relevant studies on MELD 3.0 in various scenarios, assessing its effectiveness in organ allocation, post-transplantation outcomes, and mortality prediction for patients with end-stage liver disease. Our preliminary findings indicate superior predictive performance of MELD 3.0, warranting further in-depth investigations to broaden its clinical implications.