Use of the breast implant for liver graft malposition

Transplantation of a small liver into a large patient may cause problems wi th correct reperfusion of the graft because of torsion of the hepatic pedic le, leading to malfunction of the transplanted organ. We describe the case of a 60-year-old man with alcoholic cirrhosis and hepatitis B virus who rec eived a small-sized liver graft. Owing to the lack of adequate reperfusion of the transplanted organ arising from pedicular kinking caused by disparat e sizes, a breast implant was placed behind the graft as a means of support , thereby resolving the problem. The use of prosthetic materials for the co rrect placement of grafts with size incongruity is also discussed, and the literature is reviewed. Copyright (C) 1999 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.