Technical Refinement to Prevent Hepatic Outflow Disturbance in Right Lobe Living Donor Liver Transplantation: The New Simplified One-Orifice Venoplasty Technique

Abstract

Middle hepatic vein (MHV) reconstruction is often essential to avoid hepatic congestion and serious graft dysfunction in living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). This article introduces the evolution of our MHV reconstruction technique and the excellent outcomes of a new simplified one-orifice venoplasty. We compared clinical outcomes among 3 types of one-orifice techniques through a retrospective review of 378 recipients who underwent LDLT using a modified right lobe graft at our institution from January 2008 to December 2018; group I (n=34) received separate outflow reconstruction, group II (n=166) received the one-orifice technique to create a wider single outflow with patchwork, and group III (n=178) received the more simplified one-orifice technique in which neo-MHV was reconstructed into the right hepatic vein without patch venoplasty. Patient demographic characteristics did not differ significantly among the 3 groups, but cold ischemic time and operative time in groups II and III were significantly shorter than those in group I. Moreover, the early patency rates of MHV in groups II and III were higher than those in group I. In particular, group I received an MHV or right hepatic vein stenting more frequently than group II or III during the early posttransplant period. In conclusion, this new simplified one-orifice technique could be an effective method to overcome technical difficulties and the outflow disturbance during right lobe LDLT without complex benchwork to create a large outflow.