A simple method to avoid a biliary complication after living-related liver transplantation

Abstract

LIVING-related partial liver transplantation (LRLT) produced encouraging results, with a more than 80% 5-year patient survival rate despite the complicated and elaborate procedure in comparison with cadaveric whole organ transplantation. However, the incidence of biliary complications after LRLT has been reported to be 4.3% to 35%. Avoiding biliary complications is important because these often lead to other infectious sequelae. Dilatation of bile ducts in the grafts after LRLT has been reported in the literature. One of the causes of this complication is an inadvertent suture or tie in the donor operation or bench surgery. If the patency of the bile ducts to each liver segment is confirmed during the recipient operation, this kind of complication can be avoided. We present a simple and useful technique to examine the patency of the segmental bile duct branches in the liver grafts using a surgical probe and ultrasonography.