ABSTRACT
Though achieved great success as the only curative treatment for end-stage liver diseases, liver transplantation has been severely restricted by the shortage of donors. The adoption of extended criteria donor (ECD) tackles the donor shortage problem to some extent, thus became an issue we must face in China at present stage. As the transplantation effect and recipient safety is largely decided by the quality of liver graft, ECD graft should be cautiously selected and adopted because of its inherent defects. This relies on individualized decisions made for recipients by transplant surgeons who have a good understanding of the risk factors and evaluation criteria of ECD. In this article, we investigate the risk factors, evaluation criteriaand allocation of ECD liver grafts as well as the application of mechanic perfusion, and we discuss the fundamental issues and prospects of ECD study.
ABSTRACT
Though achieved great success as the only curative treatment for end-stage liver diseases, liver transplantation has been severely restricted by the shortage of donors. The adoption of extended criteria donor (ECD) tackles the donor shortage problem to some extent, thus became an issue we must face in China at present stage. As the transplantation effect and recipient safety is largely decided by the quality of liver graft, ECD graft should be cautiously selected and adopted because of its inherent defects. This relies on individualized decisions made for recipients by transplant surgeons who have a good understanding of the risk factors and evaluation criteria of ECD. In this article, we investigate the risk factors, evaluation criteriaand allocation of ECD liver grafts as well as the application of mechanic perfusion, and we discuss the fundamental issues and prospects of ECD study.