Uj. Hesse et al., LIVER-TRANSPLANTATION AND PARTIAL LIVER-T RANSPLANTATION IN ADULTS AND CHILDREN EXPERIENCE WITH THE 50 INITIAL CASES, Zentralblatt fur Chirurgie, 118(8), 1993, pp. 472-476
The experience with 50 liver transplants performed in 42 patients with
in a 16 months period is reviewed. There were 15 transplantations in 1
2 children and 35 in 30 adults. The series was analysed regarding the
source of transplant, i. e. living related (LR) n = 2 or cadaver (CAD)
n = 48, graft size i. e. full size (FS) n = 34, reduced size (RED) n
= 12 and split grafts (SG) n = 4. Regarding the preservation time or o
perating time there was no statistically significant difference betwee
n the groups. The overall function rate was 88%, 94% for FS and 73,4%
for the remaining partial grafts (RED and SG). The difference was not
significant (p = 0.062). Biliary leakage occurred in one (2%) reduced
graft. Hepatic artery complications (kinking, intima dissection) were
encountered in two (4%) patients receiving a FS. It is concluded that
the use of partial liver grafts is a safe procedure to alleviate organ
shortage while preservation time and operating time are not prolonged
as compared to the transplantation of full size grafts.