No abstract

Female sex and metabolic disease may be factors contributing to hepatic artery thrombosis after living-donor liver transplantation. More intensive anticoagulation therapy for this patient population might decrease the incidence of hepatic artery thrombosis and, thus, posttransplant recipient mortality.

We have previously reported that a graft volume (GV) Ͼ 30% of the recipient's standard liver volume (SLV) can meet the recipient's metabolic demands. Here we report our experience with adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation using left side grafts Ͻ 35% of the recipient's SLV. Of 143 adult living donor liver transplants, 13 auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplants, 8 right side grafts, and 2 retransplantation cases were excluded. The resulting 120 cases were divided into 2 groups: group S consisted of 33 patients who received liver grafts Ͻ 35% of their SLV, and group L consisted of 87 patients who received liver grafts Ն 35% of their SLV. Patient characteristics, postoperative liver function, duration of hospital stay, and recipient survival rates were compared between the 2 groups. There were no significant differences between groups in recipient or donor background characteristics. The mean GV/SLV ratio of group S was 31.8%, whereas that of group L was 42.5%. There were no significant differences in the postoperative serum total bilirubin levels, prothrombin time international normalized ratio, daily ascites volume, or duration of postoperative hospital stay between the groups. The 1-and 5-year survival rates in group S were 80.7% and 64.2%, respectively, whereas those of group L were 90.8% and 84.9%, respectively, with no significant difference between groups. In conclusion, graft size was not considered to be the only cause of so-called small-for-size graft syndrome, and left side grafting appears to be the procedure of choice for adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation because of the lower risk to donors in comparison with right lobe grafting. Liver Transpl 15: 1622-1630, 2009.

LRLT is an efficacious procedure that provides excellent short-term and long-term survival. The indication criteria for both recipient and donor were legitimate in this series, except for transplant across ABO-incompatibility. Cautious expansion of this procedure may be justified under the situation of serious shortage of cadaveric donor.