Liver Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Liver Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Tailoring the type of donor hepatectomy for adult living donor liver transplantation.

Kokudo N, Sugawara Y, Imamura H, Sano K, Makuuchi M

Department of Surgery, Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery Division, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Division, University of Tokyo, Japan. KOKUDO-2SU@h.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Donor hepatectomies for adult living donor liver transplantations were performed in 200 consecutive donors to harvest a left liver (LL) graft (n = 5), a LL plus caudate lobe (LL + CL) graft (n = 63), a right liver (RL) graft (n = 86), a RL and middle hepatic vein (RL + MHV) graft (n = 28) or a right lateral sector (RLS) graft (n = 18). The graft type was selected so that at least 40% of the recipient's standard liver volume was harvested. No donor deaths occurred, and no significant differences in the morbidity rates among either donors or recipients were observed when the outcomes were stratified according to the graft type. Donors who donated RL exhibited higher values of serum total bilirubin and prothrombin time than those who donated non-RL (LL, LL + CL, RLS) grafts. The time taken for hilar dissection and parenchymal transection increased in the following order: RLS graft, LL graft and RL graft harvesting. In conclusion, non-RL grafting was more time consuming, but the hepatic functional loss in the donors was smaller. Our graft selection criteria were useful for reducing the use of RL grafts with acceptable morbidity in both donors and recipients.

Published 9 June 2005 in Am J Transplant, 5(7): 1694-703.
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