Abdominal Transplant Surgery and Transplant Coordination University Hospitals Leuven 1997–2007: an Overview

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The transplant surgery and transplant coordination department was created in 1997 to meet up with the demand of the growing abdominal transplant surgery and organ procurement activity at the University Hospitals in Leuven. Since then, the procurement activity has increased and is currently distributed within the University Hospital Gasthuisberg and a network of ~25 collaborative hospitals. The profile of the donors has changed with older donors and more co-morbidity factors (obesity, hypertension, etc.). This donor activity represents ~30% of the national donor pool. Over the last 10 years, more than 1100 kidneys, more than 500 livers, ~50 pancreas, and 5 intestines have been transplanted in both adults and children. One year survival equal to-or exceeding 90% has been achieved for all abdominal organs and this compares favorably with international registries. More than 40 multi-visceral transplants {liver in combination with abdominal (kidney, pancreas, intestine) or thoracic (heart, double lung, heart-lung) organs} have been performed with results equivalent to isolated liver transplants and very little immunological graft loss (probably due to the immunoprotective effect of the liver). A live donation program was started for the kidney (40 cases) and for the liver (10 cases) in adults and children and no surgical graft loss has been seen so far. Introduction of new machine perfusion systems (and development of donor protocols) has made it possible to restart a non-heart-beating donor program for kidney transplantation. Experimental demonstration that livers tolerate short periods of warm ischemia has also allowed to start liver transplantation from non-heart-beating donors. In the future, machine perfusion of livers, viability testing, and biological modulation are likely to widen the use of marginal livers for transplantation and improve the results. An immunomodulatory protocol proven in the lab to induce the development of regulatory T cells has been applied clinically to 5 consecutive intestinal transplants. All 5 - at the time of writing - have been rejection-free and have achieved nutritional independence. Continuous research and development is warranted to increase the organ donor pool (currently the solely limiting factor of transplantation) and to optimize long-term graft and patient outcome.