ABSTRACT
Objective To discuss the treatment and prevention of bile duct complications after living donor liver transplantation. Methods The clinical data of 84 cases of living donor liver trans-plantation including 56 adult recipients and 28 pediatric recipients were analyzed. Amongst the 84 pa-tients, 66 had benign end-stage liver diseases and 18 hepatocellular carcinoma. Duct-to-duct biliary re-construction was performed in 50 cases. One recipient received an end-to-end and end-to-side anasto-mosis of hepatic duct of donor and hepatic duct and common bile duct of recipient and another under-went end-to-end anastomosis of hepatic duct of donor and hepatic duct and cystic duct of recipient while the other 32 cases hepaticojejunostomy. 4Fr or 6Fr stent was routinely inserted into bile duct af-ter biliary reconstruction and elicited from the anterior wall of common bile duct or lateral wall of jeju-nal caecum of recipient in all the 84 cases. Results Twenty-four cases had biliary complications and the incidence was 28.5 %. The incidence of biliary leakage was significantly different between duct-to-duct reconstruction and hepaticojejunostomy (8.3% νs 16.7%, P＜0.05). The incidence of biliary stricture was markedly different between duct-to-duct reconstruction and hepaticojejunostomy (50% νs 16.7%, P＜0.05). The biliary complication was remarkably different between single hepatic duct and multiple hepatic duct (20.8% νs 79.2, P＜0.05). Four cases of biliary leakage were cured with con-servative treatment and the other 4 need reoperation. Four cases of biliary stricture were cured by way of endoscopic dilation and nose-biliary drainage, 2 cases turned to be better. Six cases were cured by conversion of hepaticojejunostomy and 4 turned to be better by way of percutaneous transhepatic biliar-y dilation and drainage. The recipients didn't die of biliary complications. Conclusion It is necessary to decrease the biliary complications after living donor liver transplantation, to be satisfactory blood supply and anastomotic technigue and select appropriato biliary reconstruction.