Impact of Cold Ischemia Time on the Function of Liver Grafts Preserved With Custodiol

Effects of Peroperative Cold Ischemia Time and Anhepatic Phase in Adult Living Donor Liver Transplant Recipients: Operation Time That is Not Affected by the Anhepatic Phase But is Prolonged by Cold Ischemia Time

OBJECTIVE

It was aimed to examine the overall role of cold ischemia time and anhepatic phase durations in terms of peroperative blood transfusion needs, hospital stay conditions and postoperative charges, and survival in recipients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

One hundred forty-eight adult living donor liver transplant recipients (18 years and older) were included in the study. Whether the anhepatic phase and cold ischemia duration have an effect on the rates of surgery time, blood product transfusion, total hospital and intensive care unit stay, postoperative biliary complications, hepatic vein thrombosis, portal vein thrombosis, early postoperative bleeding, sepsis, and primary graft dysfunction. Was analyzed statistically. In addition, the effect of the anhepatic phase and cold ischemia time on graft survival was statistically examined by creating an average of the patient follow-up period.

RESULTS

It was observed that the operation time increased statistically as the cold ischemia time increased (P = .000). No statistically significant relationship was found between other findings and cold ischemia time and anhepatic phase.

CONCLUSION

Prolonged surgery time due to increased cold ischemia time may be an important finding in terms of peroperative and postoperative results of the graft.

Lactate concentration at the end of liver transplant: Early predictor of graft function or just one piece of the puzzle?

BACKGROUND

The post-operative course after Liver Transplantation (LT) can be complicated by early allograft dysfunction (EAD), primary nonfunction (PNF) and death. A lactate concentration at the end of transplant of ≥5 mmol/L was recently proposed as a predictive marker of PNF, EAD, and mortality; this study aimed to validate these previous reports in a large single center cohort.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study included adult liver transplant recipients who received grafts from deceased donors at our center between June 2012 and May 2021. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the lactate concentration at the end of transplantation were computed to determine the AUC for PNF, EAD and mortality at 90 days.

RESULTS

In our cohort of 1137 cases, the AUCs for lactate to predict EAD, PNF and mortality were respectively .56 (95% confidence interval [CI]: .53-.60), .69 (95% CI: .52-.85), and .74 (95% CI: .63-.84).

CONCLUSION

The clinical value of lactate concentration at the end of transplantation to predict PNF, EAD and mortality at 90 days was, at best, modest, as shown by the relatively low AUCs. Our findings cannot validate previous reports that the lactate level alone is a good predictor of poor outcomes after liver transplantation.

Approaches to reconstruction of inferior vena cava by ex vivo liver resection and autotransplantation in 114 patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis

BACKGROUND

Hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is most commonly found in retrohepatic inferior vena cava (RHIVC). Ex vivo liver resection and autotransplantation (ELRA) can better realize the radical resection of end-stage hepatic AE with severely compromised hepatocaval confluences, and reconstruction of the affected vessels. Currently, there is a scarcity of information regarding RHIVC reconstruction in ELRA.

AIM

To propose reasonable RHICV reconstruction strategies for ex vivo liver resection and autotransplantation.

METHODS

We retrospectively summarized the clinical data of 114 patients diagnosed with hepatic AE who treated by ELRA in our department. A total of 114 patients were divided into three groups according to the different reconstruction methods of RHIVC: Group A with original RHIVC being repaired and reconstructed (n = 64), group B with RHIVC being replaced (n = 43), and group C with RHIVC being resected without reconstruction (n = 7). The clinical data of patients, including the operation time, anhepatic phase, intraoperative blood loss, complications and postoperative hospital stay, were analyzed and the patients were routinely followed up. The normally distributed continuous variables were expressed as means ± SD, whereas the abnormally distributed ones were expressed as median and analyzed by analysis of variance. Survival curve was plotted by the Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS

All patients were routinely followed up for a median duration of 52 (range, 12-125) mo. The 30 d mortality rate was 7.0% (8/114) and 7 patients died within 90 d. Among all subjects, the inferior vena cava (IVC)-related complication rates were 17.5% (11/63) in group A and 16.3% (7/43) in group B. IVC stenosis was found in 12 patients (10.5%), whereas thrombus was formed in 6 patients (5.3%). Twenty-two patients had grade III or higher complications, with the complication rates being 17.2%, 16.3%, and 57.1% in the three groups. The average postoperative hospital stay in the three groups was 32.3 ± 19.8, 26.7 ± 18.2, and 51.3 ± 29.4 d (P = 0.03), respectively.

CONCLUSION

ELRA can be considered a safe and feasible option for end-stage hepatic AE patients with RHIVC infiltration. The RHIVC reconstruction methods should be selected appropriately depending on the defect degree of AE lesions in IVC lumen. The RHIVC resection without any reconstruction method should be considered with caution.

Pure Laparoscopic vs. Open Right Hepatectomy in Living Liver Donors: Bench-Surgery Time

Background: Recently, there have been several reports on pure laparoscopic donor right hepatectomy (PLDRH), but the effect of pure laparoscopy on bench surgery has not been evaluated. This study aimed to compare bench-surgery time between PLDRH and conventional donor right hepatectomy (CDRH).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 758 live liver donors between January 2012 and December 2019. We divided the patients into two groups: between January 2012 and September 2015, when we exclusively performed CDRH, and between March 2016 and December 2019, when PLDRH was standardized. We excluded all other types of graft donor hepatectomy, laparoscopic assisted donor hepatectomy, and cases with no recorded data.

Results: In total, 267 donors were included in the PLDRH group and were compared with 247 donors in the CDRH group. Similar proportions of graft vascular variations were observed between the two groups. The mean bench-surgery time was longer in the PLDRH group than in the CDRH group (49.3 ± 19.9 vs. 39.5 ± 17.5 min; P < 0.001).

Conclusion: The bench-surgery time was longer in the PLDRH group than the CDRH group, regardless of whether the vascular network was reconstructed. Expertise in bench-surgery as well as donor surgery and recipient surgery is mandatory for PLDRH to be safe and feasible.