[Transplantation en masse of abdominal organs]

The transplantation of multiple abdominal viscera including liver-duodenum-pancreas, liver-stomach-duodenum-pancreas, and liver-intestine is being performed with increasing frequency and success. These procedures and other variations are derived from a seldom used multiple visceral operation in which all of the foregoing organs are transplanted in bloc. It is described here how the full multiple visceral transplantation and its less extensive derivatives are based on the same principles of procurement, preservation, and postoperative management. With all of these multiple organ permutations and with intestinal transplantation alone, management is complicated by inclusion in the grafts of a large lymphoreticular component which is capable of causing graft versus host disease (GVHD). Because of a systematic error in therapeutic philosophy, past efforts have been directed at altering or damaging the lymphoreticular cells by pretreatment or of the donor of the organs with drugs, irradiation or other means. From recent observations, the alternative approach is suggested of keeping these lymphoid depots intact which then become the site of 2 way cell traffic after transplantation. Under powerful immunosuppression such as that provided with FK 506, the donor lymphoreticular cells can circulate in the recipient without causing clinical GVHD, and the lymphoreticular cells in the graft become those of the recipient (local chimerism) without causing rejection. Even with avoidance of rejection and GVHD, metabolic interrelations between the grafted organs, and also between the graft organs and retained recipient viscera can affect the fate of the individual transplanted organs or retained recipient organs. The best delineated of these metabolic influences are mediated by the endogenous splanchnic hepatotrophic factors of which insulin has been the most completely studied.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)