Argon beam coagulator hepatorrhaphy in potential donors

Advances in medical technology have provided clinicians with the means to successfully treat life-threatening illnesses and injuries. For trauma surgeons, the acuteness and severity of thoracic and abdominal injuries may not allow time for complete, continuous neurologic examination, including computed tomography. The situation may arise in which urgent, major surgical intervention is necessary in a neurologically moribund patient. One such patient is presented herein; the Argon Beam Coagulator is used to repair a severe liver injury in this unstable trauma victim on whom a complete neurologic examination could not be performed. Cerebral death ensued and the repaired liver was successfully transplanted.