The recipient with portal thrombosis and/or previous surgery

Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) has been considered to be an absolute contraindication to liver transplantation (OLT) and previous upper abdominal surgery was considered to render it a high-risk procedure. Currently, these are only conditions considered risk factors increasing recipient morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to compare OLT perioperative morbidity, mortality, blood product consumption, and length of hospital stay among patients with or without PVT or with or without previous surgery.

Among 366 OLTs performed between July 1999 and November 2007, 33 liver transplant recipients displayed previous PVT while 34 had undergone previous surgery. The two groups of marginal recipients were compared with a cohort of 33 patients without PVT or previous surgery.

The groups were homogeneous in terms of epidemiological variables, surgical techniques, and donor-related variables. In the PVT group, all analyzed parameters were the same as the control group; surgical time, anhepatic phase duration, early surgical complication, intensive care unit and hospital length of stay, and overall mortality. The only significant difference was the incidence of portal rethrombosis (P < .035). Among the previous surgery group, we did not observe significant differences.

PVT and previous surgery should no longer be considered contraindications for OLT.