According to recent international consensus conferences, pure laparoscopic donor hepatectomy (PLDH), particularly right and left hepatectomies, is not yet considered a standard practice because studies remain limited. Thus, we present the outcomes of more than 500 PLDH patients, mostly receiving a right hepatectomy. To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date on PLDH. Data from all living liver donors who underwent PLDH at 5 centers in Korea until June 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The outcomes of both donors and recipients were included. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between the duration of surgery and cumulative experience at each center, which reflects the learning curve. Overall, 545 PLDH cases were analyzed, including 481 right hepatectomies, 25 left hepatectomies, and 39 left lateral sectionectomies (LLS). The open conversion was necessary for 10 (1.8%) donors, and none of the donors died or experienced irreversible disability. Notably, there were 25 (4.6%) patients with major complications (higher than Clavien-Dindo grade 3). All centers except one showed a significant decrease in surgery duration as the number of cases accumulated. Regarding recipient outcomes, there were 110 cases (20.2%) of early major complications and 177 cases (32.5%) of late major complications. This study shows the early and late postoperative outcomes of 545 donors and corresponding recipients, including 481 right hepatectomies and 25 left hepatectomies, from 5 experienced centers. Although the results are comparable to those of previously reported open donor hepatectomy series, further studies are needed to consider PLDH a new standard practice.

Purpose This study aimed to assess the performance of ChatGPT, specifically the GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models, in understanding complex surgical clinical information and its potential implications for surgical education and training. Methods The dataset comprised 280 questions from the Korean general surgery board exams conducted between 2020 and 2022. Both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models were evaluated, and their performances were compared using McNemar test. Results GPT-3.5 achieved an overall accuracy of 46.8%, while GPT-4 demonstrated a significant improvement with an overall accuracy of 76.4%, indicating a notable difference in performance between the models (P < 0.001). GPT-4 also exhibited consistent performance across all subspecialties, with accuracy rates ranging from 63.6% to 83.3%. Conclusion ChatGPT, particularly GPT-4, demonstrates a remarkable ability to understand complex surgical clinical information, achieving an accuracy rate of 76.4% on the Korean general surgery board exam. However, it is important to recognize the limitations of large language models and ensure that they are used in conjunction with human expertise and judgment.

Earn MOC for this article: www.wileyhealthlearning.com/aasld.aspxThis study is designed to analyze the feasibility of laparoscopic living donor right hemihepatectomy in living donors with portal vein variation. Living donor liver transplantation cases using a right liver graft during the period of January 2014 to September 2019 were included. Computed tomographic angiographies of the donor were 3-dimensionally reconstructed, and the anatomical variation of the portal vein was classified. To reduce selection bias, a 1:1 ratio propensity score-matched analysis between the laparoscopy group and the open group was performed. Surgical and recovery-related outcomes as well as portal vein complication-free survival, graft survival, and overall survival rates were analyzed. After matching, 171 cases in each group from 444 original cases were compared. The laparoscopy group had a shorter operation time (P < 0.001), a smaller number of additional opioids required by the donor (P < 0.001), and a shorter hospital stay (P < 0.001). There were no differences in the portal vein complication-free survival (P = 0.16), graft survival (P = 0.26), or overall survival rates (P = 0.53). Although portal vein complication-free survival was inferior in portal veins other than type I (P = 0.01), the laparoscopy group showed similar portal vein complication-free survival regardless of the anatomical variation of portal vein (P = 0.35 in type I and P = 0.30 in other types). Laparoscopic living donor right hemihepatectomy can be performed as safely as open surgery regardless of the anatomical variation of the portal vein.