Organ Transplantation Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Organ Transplantation, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery.

Hepatic venous reconstruction of anterior sector using three-dimensional helical computed tomography in living donor liver transplantation.

Taniguchi M, Furukawa H, Shimamura T, Suzuki T, Oota M, Onodera Y, Todo S

Department of General Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. m-tani@med.hokudai.ac.jp

In right lobe living donor liver transplantation (RL-LDLT), venous reconstruction of large middle hepatic vein (MHV) tributaries is often necessary. However the standard for reconstruction is unclear. In two recent RL-LDLT cases, we reconstructed a MHV tributary after estimating the donor's liver volume by three-dimensional images using helical computed tomography (3D-CT). 3D-CT demonstrated that the expected donor right lobe volume was 437 ml, which represented 46.2% of graft volume/recipient's standard volume ratio (GV/SV ratio) in case 1, and 600 ml (46.4%) in case 2. Moreover, 3D-CT revealed a large MHV tributary, 8 mm in diameter, drained 190 ml in volume of segment 8 in case 1, and, 7 mm in diameter, drained 138 ml in case 2. In these cases, when the area drained by the MHV tributary was excluded, GV/SV ratio were 26.1% and 35.7%, respectively. Based on this data, we reconstructed a large MHV tributary in both cases.

Published 14 March 2006 in Transplantation, 81(5): 797-9.
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