Doubly-armed short sutures are useful for microsurgical hepatic artery reconstruction in living-related liver transplantation

Although microsurgical hepatic artery reconstruction has become the essenti al technique in pediatric and living-related liver transplantation, ii; rem ains a technical challenge. We describe here our microsurgical hepatic arte ry reconstruction technique in living-related liver transplantation using a doubly-armed short suture. From August 1998 to March 1999, 8 patients underwent living-related liver t ransplantation at the Kyushu University. For these 8 patients, microsurgica l reconstruction with doubly-armed short sutures were undertaken. After preparing the operative field for microsurgery, operative microscopy with a continuous zoom magnification is introduced. Interrupted sutures usi ng doubly-armed short sutures are performed in a biangular stay-sutured met hod with a double clip. None of the 8 patients developed hepatic artery thr ombosis. We conclude that the use of doubly-armed sutures allows safe and reliable i n microsurgical hepatic artery reconstruction in living related liver trans plantation.