Impact of Recipient’s Inflow Artery Selection on Hepatic Artery Thrombosis Post Living Donor Liver Transplantation

Abstract

Abstract Background Hepatic artery reconstruction is one of the most important steps in liver transplantation, and complications associated with this vascular reconstruction, such as hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) may have a significant influence on the recipients’ prognosis. Aim of the Work The purpose of this retrospective study is to evaluate whether the selection of the recipient’s right versus left hepatic artery for hepatic artery reconstruction as an inflow artery will influence the chance of HAT after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Patients and Methods This is a retrospective study that analysed and evaluated the hospital records of all patients who underwent LDLT at Ain Shams University specialized Hospital (ASCOT) from January 2010 to January 2020. Records of all 390 patients were reviewed and drop out of 101 patients was performed according to the exclusion criteria. Results The study showed that the right hepatic artery was used in 79.5% of cases while the left hepatic artery was used in 20.1% of cases in the study population. The incidence of HAT was 7.3% in the whole study population. On further analysis of the arterial complications and distribution according to the usage of the right or left hepatic artery as the recipient inflow artery, there was an increase in the incidence of HAT when the right hepatic artery was used (7.9 %) compared to left hepatic artery which was (5.2 %) although it did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion Incidence of HAT was generally higher following LDLT using the right hepatic artery as the recipient’s inflow artery.