Intentional Portal Pressure Control Is Key to Improving the Outcome of Living Donor Liver Transplantation: The Kyoto University Hospital Experience.

Ogura Y, Hori T, Uemoto S.

Clinical Transplants 2008, Chapter 14

Abstract

This study indicates that intentional portal pressure control under 20 mmHg can improve patient survival not only for recipients of small-for-size grafts but also in classically appropriately sized grafts undergoing A-LDLT. In a retrospective analysis of 100 transplants with intentional portal pressure control, we found that patient survival was significantly better at an even lower final portal pressure of 15 mmHg. As a result, we have adjusted our target portal pressure control protocol, targeting a final portal pressure below 15 mmHg. Portal pressure control allows living donors to donate the smaller left lobe in many cases, which is safer in terms of living donors' post-operative morbidity. As intentional portal pressure control can overcome size-mismatching between the donor and recipient, we propose that it may also be applied to deceased donor liver grafts and in the split-liver transplant setting when the graft size is considered small for the recipient. Intentional portal pressure control can be applied in many liver transplantation situations to overcome small-for-size problems.