Effect of splenic artery ligation for hypersplenism during liver transplantation / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and security of splenic artery ligation for severe hypersplenism during liver transplantation.Method Thirty-two liver transplant patients with preoperative hypersplenism were selected,including 17 cases (ligation group) treated by splenic artery ligation during liver transplantation,and rest 15 patients as non-ligation group.The fluctuation of white blood cells,platelets and volume of spleen were compared between these two groups.At the same time,splenic infarction,postoperative infection,recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding,splenic artery steal syndrome and other complications were observed in these two groups.Result All recipients were followed up for over 6 months.One recipient in ligation group died of multiple organ dysfunction caused by delayed recovery of liver donor with the survival rate being 94.1％ (16/17).The survival rate in non-ligation group was 93.3 ％ (14/15) (one recipient died of respiratory failure caused by pulmonary infection).There was no statistically significant difference in survival rate between these two groups (P＞0.05).Splenic necrosis wasn't detected in the ligation group.The splenic volume in ligation group was significantly less than that in non-ligation group (P＜0.01).The products of splenic maximum length and wide diameter shrunk 33.17-± 8.26 cm2 and 22.47 ± 7.25 cm2 in ligation group and non-ligation group,respectively.The platelet counts of ligation group were significantly greater than those of non-ligation group in all the observation points within 6 postoperative months (P＜0.01).The white blood cell counts of ligation group were greater than those of non-ligation group at the first week postoperatively (P＜0.01),whereas,there was no statistically significant difference between these two groups from then on (P＞0.05).The infection incidence of ligation group was lower than that of non-ligation group within 6 postoperative months (P ＜0.05).Statistically significant differences in recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding and splenic artery steal syndrome weren't found between these two groups (P＞0.05).Conclusion Splenic artery ligation in liver transplantation is safe and effective.It can rapidly increase the counts of platelet and white blood cell in the earlier postoperative time,which is beneficial to patient's recovery.Besides,it adds no correlative complication.