Successful re-use of liver allografts: three case reports and a review of the UNOS database

The donor organ shortage has compelled transplant centers to use organs from non-traditional sources. One example is the re-use of a previously transplanted organ, such as a kidney or liver. We report three cases detailing the successful re-use of liver allografts. In all three cases, the index recipient was declared brain-dead very soon post-transplant, but was felt to have a well-functioning liver graft. Important points in these cases were to ensure that the liver graft was functioning well in the index recipient, that it appeared normal per biopsy examination, and that ischemic time was kept very short at the time of the second transplant. We queried the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database for similar cases, and found 11 such cases, which we briefly describe herein.