A Novel Surgical Technique to Assure Donor and Recipient Safety: Pyloric to Segment 4 Arterial Reconstruction.

BACKGROUND: Strategies to extend the pool of organs include and promote the use of segmental liver grafts. While performing a living donor left lateral segment (LLS) liver transplant and in split procedures, the hepatic artery´s division becomes critical when a dominant segment 4 artery (S4A) emerges from the left hepatic artery (LHA). We aim to describe a novel technique that consists of performing microsurgical reconstruction from the pyloric artery (PA) to S4A. CASE REPORTS: A 45-y-old living donor was evaluated to use his LLS as a graft for a pediatric recipient. During the procedure, a dominant S4A born from the LHA was dissected. To obtain an appropriate LHA length and diameter for the recipient, it was necessary to transect it. An extended right lobe split graft was used in a 61-y-old patient. The S4A born from LHA had to be sectioned during the split procedure. In both cases, segment 4 remained incompletely perfused. The PA was dissected with enough length to be rotated, to perform a microsurgical anastomosis to the S4A, recovering parenchyma's color and Doppler signal while vascular permeability was demonstrated using CT scan. There was no biliary or cut surface complication. CONCLUSIONS: PA to S4A reconstruction is a simple and novel technique that can be used for LLS and extended right lobe split graft and might contribute to increase donor selection and reduce living donor and recipient S4A-related complications.

Factibilidad de la bipartición hepática derecha-izquierda in situ en el trasplante Hepático / Feasibility of in situ full-right full-left split liver transplantation

Debido a la falta de órganos para trasplantes se han desarrollado diferentes alternativas quirúrgicas, como la bipartición hepática (BH) y los trasplantes hepáticos con donantes vivos. En la BH clásica, de la división de un hígado de donante cadavérico se obtienen dos injertos, uno correspondiente a los segmentos 2-3 y otro a los segmentos 1, 4-8. Para poder utilizar los injertos de una BH, en pacientes adultos, se puede realizar una BH derecha/izquierda típica, donde se obtienen un injerto derecho (segmentos 5-8) y otro izquierdo (segmentos 1-4). La BH se puede realizar en el momento de la ablación (BH in situ) o en la cirugía de banco (BH ex situ). En este trabajo informamos el primer caso de BH in situ derecha/izquierda típica de la Argentina, resaltando los detalles de la cirugía del donante y del receptor.

Due to the shortage of organs for transplantation, different surgical alternatives have been developed, as split liver transplantation (SLT) and living-donor liver transplantation. In classical SLT, the liver of a cadaveric donor is divided and two allografts are obtained, one corresponding to segments 2-3 and the other to segments 1, 4-8. In order to produce two grafts from one liver for two adult recipients, splitting of the liver can create a right graft including segments 5-8 and a left graft with segments 1-4. Splitting of the liver can be performed during procurement (in situ) or on the bench (ex situ). The aim of our study is to describe the first case of in situ full-right full-left split liver transplantation, with focus on donor and recipient surgery.

Unusual spontaneous porto-systemic shunt: The importance of diagnosing non-anatomical porto-systemic shunts to improve portal flow in pediatric living-related liver transplantation. Case report.

Collateral circulation secondary to liver cirrhosis may cause the development of large PSSs that may steal flow from the main portal circulation. It is important to identify these shunts prior to, or during the transplant surgery because they might cause an insufficient portal flow to the implanted graft. There are few reports of "steal flow syndrome" cases in pediatrics, even in biliary atresia patients that may have portal hypoplasia as an associated malformation. We present a 12-month-old female who received an uneventful LDLT from her mother, and the GRWR was 4.8. During the early post-operative period, she became hemodynamically unstable, developed ascites, and altered LFT. The post-operative ultrasound identified reversed portal flow, finding a non-anatomical PSS. A 3D CT scan confirmed the presence of a mesocaval shunt through the territory of the right gonadal vein, draining into the right iliac vein, with no portal inflow into the liver. The patient was re-operated, and the shunt was ligated. An intraoperative Doppler ultrasound showed adequate portal inflow after the procedure; the patient evolved satisfactorily and was discharged home on day number 49. The aim was to report a case of post-operative steal syndrome in a pediatric recipient due to a mesocaval shunt not diagnosed during the pretransplant evaluation.