Reuse of Auxiliary Liver Grafts
The Department of Liver Transplantation at Leiden Hospital, Netherlands, published in November’s issue of American Journal of Transplantation, a very interesting and innovative article.
They describe the first cases of reuse of auxiliary liver grafts for orthotopic transplantation in chronic liver disease.
A reduced liver graft (segments 2, 3, half of 4) was first transplanted. After regeneration of both native liver and graft, the auxiliary graft was removed and immunosuppression discontinued in the first recipients.
After informed consent of donors and recipients, both auxiliary grafts were then orthotopically transplanted into second recipients.
Both grafts function normally, so their results showed that reuse of auxiliary grafts may help to reduce the shortage or liver grafts available for transplantation.
American Journal of Transplantation 2007; 7: 2615–2618
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