A NEW ANIMAL-MODEL FOR SPLIT LIVER-TRANSPLANTATION USING AN INFRAHEPATIC IVC GRAFT

An animal model of split liver transplantation using pigs is described herein. The donor liver was divided into two grafts, the right graft consisting of the right medial and lateral segments with the caudate l obe, and the left graft consisting of the left lateral and medial segm ents. To make implantation easier, a distal part of the donor's inferi or vena cava (IVC) was isolated and attached to the left graft with an anastomosis between the orifice of the renal vein and the graft's hep atic vein. The left graft thereby contained a newly constructed retroh epatic IVC for anastomosis to the recipient. During the anhepatic phas e, no conventional bypass procedure was used, but an abdominal aortic clamp in combination with general hypothermia was employed. Ten pigs w ere used as donors and a total 20 liver transplantations performed. No immunosuppressive drugs were given in this series. Ten of the 20 reci pients survived for more than 2 days, the mean survival time being 4.7 days, with a range of 2-14 days. The mean survival time of the left g rafts was much longer than that of the right grafts, although no techn ical problems such as kinking of the graft or occlusion of the hepatic vein were encountered in either. This model is the first report of sp lit liver transplantation in animals. The advantages of using the infr ahepatic IVC graft include stability of the graft and safe hepatectomy . This model will therefore be useful for the experimental study of sp lit liver transplantation and may also be employed for clinical use in the future.