Split-cava technique: liver splitting for two adult recipients

Split-liver transplantation for 2 adult recipients is a challenging procedure because of the need to split through the midplane of the donor liver. In applied techniques, usually the middle hepatic vein is retained with the left split and the vena cava retained with the right split graft, particularly to avoid serious venous congestion of the right graft after reperfusion. The indispensable division of the caudate lobe veins lead to uncertain viability of liver segment I, and resection might be necessary. To provide optimal venous drainage of both hemiliver grafts, we developed the split-cava technique. This article describes our new technique of liver splitting, which has been successfully used in 2 in situ harvesting procedures.