Academic contribution of Masatoshi Makuuchi: a master of hepatobiliary surgery, an example to learn from

Abstract

The famous professor, Masatoshi Makuuchi was known as the king of the liver surgery. Authors concluded main contributions of Masatoshi Makuuchi by reviewing literatures. (1) He was the first to use intraoperative ultrasonography during liver operations. Furthermore, he pioneered anatomical hepatectomy and ultrasound guided transhepatic cholangiography and cholangial drainage. (2) He was the first to adopted pre-operative selective portal vein embolization (PVE) and hemihepatic blood flow occlusion. (3) He performed the first adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation (A-ALDLT) worldwide and established the well-known formula to predict standard liver volume. (4) The more laudable achievement is promoting these advanced concepts and techniques to the world, training a large group of contemporary hepatobiliary surgeons and benefiting a great number of patients. Masatoshi Makuuchi is a well-deserved master and a good example for contemporary hepatobiliary surgeons to follow. Key words: Hepatobiliary surgery; Masatoshi Makuuchi; Contributions; Learning