Liver transplantation is the standard of care in patients with end-stage liver disease and those with tumors of hepatic origin. In 2011 there were 16,107 patients in the United States waiting for a liver transplant, but only 6341 transplants were…
In 1983, after review of over 500 cases, the National Institutes of Health issued a consensus statement establishing liver transplantation (LT) as an effective and durable therapy for adults and children with end-stage liver disease. Before this event the procedure…
Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is a durable and the definitive lifesaving treatment modality for patients suffering from irreversible liver failure. Although thousands of patients receive liver transplants each year, the limited organ supply remains a reality, and many patients are…
Vascular complications continue to be a major source of morbidity and mortality after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Arterial complications of OLT threaten outcomes for patients and allografts. Hepatic arterial thrombosis (HAT) interrupts the allograft's blood supply and produces early graft…
Graft failure is a serious life-threatening condition for transplant recipients, and when left untreated, it results inevitably in death of the recipient. It is important to differentiate between acute and chronic graft failure. Although acute graft failure occurs early in…
Although outcomes after liver transplantation (LT) have enjoyed unprecedented success, particularly in children, anatomical anomalies increase the complexity of the procedure. Situs inversus (SI) is one such anomaly that can be associated with intra-abdominal anatomical aberrations. At one time, patients…
The last 30 years have demonstrated dramatic improvements in survival outcomes following liver transplantation and thus have allowed liver transplantation to be established as the standard of care for adult and pediatric patients with end-stage liver disease or hepatic malignancy.…
Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is defined as a partial or complete occlusion of the blood flow within the portal vein by an intraluminal thrombus. Balfour and Stewart first described this process in the literature in 1868 in a patient who…
Reconstruction of the hepatic artery is one of the principal technical challenges in orthotopic liver transplantation, and successful patient and allograft outcomes depend on robust, uninterrupted arterial flow into the newly implanted liver. Because oxygen is delivered to the allograft's…
According to conventional clinical and surgical standards of the early 1960s, removal of a diseased liver and replacing it with a working, undamaged one was a concept that, although visionary and sound, had a low probability of being successfully executed.…