Between February 1997 and December 2001, 311 adult-to-adult living donor liver transplants (A-A LDLTs) were performed at the Asan Medical Center for patients above 20 years of age. Indications for A-A LDLT were: chronic hepatitis B (203), chronic hepatitis C (5), hepatocellular carcinoma (64), alcoholic cirrhosis (9), cryptogenic cirrhosis (4), secondary biliary cirrhosis (5), primary biliary cirrhosis (1), Wilson' s disease (2), autoimmune hepatitis (1), hepatic tuberculosis (1), cholangiocarcinoma (1), fulminant hepatic failure (14) and primary non-function of cadaveric liver graft (1). Of 311 A-A LDLTs, 36 were of medical high urgency, 20 were for acute and subacute hepatic failure, 15 were for hepato-renal syndrome and 1 was for primary non-function. Recipient age ranged from 27 to 64 years. Donor age ranged from 16 to 62 years. There was no donor mortality. Implanted liver grafts were categorized into seven types: 175 modified right lobe (MRL), 70 left lobe, 32 right lobe, 20 dual grafts, 10 left lobe plus caudate lobe, three extended right lobe and one posterior segment. In MRL, the tributaries of the middle hepatic vein were reconstructed by interpositioning a vein graft. Indication for dual graft implantation was the same as single graft A-A LDLT, and four of 20 were emergency cases. Of 20 dual grafts, 14 received two left lobes, four received a left lobe and a lateral segment, one received a right lobe and a left lobe and one received a lateral segment and a posterior segment. Graft volume ranged from 28% to 83% of the standard liver volume of the recipients. There were 33 (10.6%) in-hospital mortalities (< 4 months) among the 310 patients after 311 A-A LDLTs. Of the 36 patients receiving emergency transplants, 31 survived. These encouraging results justify the expansion of A-A LDLT in coping with increasing demands, even in urgent situations. We have aimed to introduce the establishment of the efficacy of A-A LDLT in various end-stage chronic and acute liver diseases, as well as new technical advances to overcome small graft-size syndrome by using dual-graft implantation and MRL, both of which were first developed in our department.

Sarcomatous change has been rarely observed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but it is usually associated with very aggressive tumor behavior and widespread metastasis. To assess the impact of sarcomatous changes, we analyzed the outcomes of 15 patients with sarcomatous HCC after resection (n = 11) or liver transplantation (LT) (n = 4). No imaging findings characteristic of sarcomatous changes were observed. According to modified pathological tumor-node metastasis staging, the HCC lesions were classified as stage II in five patients, stage III in six, stage IVa2 in two, and stage IVb in one. The Milan criteria were met in 7 of 15 patients, including 3 of 4 in the LT group. R0 resection was achieved in 9 of 11 resected patients, and their 3-year overall and disease-free survival rates were both 18.2%. In the LT group, 3-year overall and disease-free survival rates were 37.5 and 25%, respectively. In patients within the Milan criteria, 2-year overall survival rate was 25% after resection and 33% after LT, showing no prognostic difference. Extrahepatic metastasis as initial recurrence was detected in 80% after resection and 66.7% after LT. In conclusion, we found that the prognosis of patients with sarcomatous HCC was very unfavorable after either resection or LT and that, except for liver biopsy, no diagnostic method could distinguish between sarcomatous and ordinary HCC. Vigorous postoperative systemic surveillance may be helpful for timely detection and treatment of localized metastases.

Pure primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCCa) of the ovary not associated with pre-existing ovarian lesions including dermoid cysts, Brenner tumors, or endometriosis is extremely rare. The last 2 types of SCCa and pure primary SCCa have been classified by the World Health Organization criteria as surface epithelial-stromal tumors. On account of the rarity of pure primary SCCa of the ovary, the clinical features and effective treatments have not been established. This study describes 2 such cases that we recently encountered in a review of the literature. The literature shows that patients with advanced-stage tumors have very poor survival outcomes, despite a combination of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.