Surgical complications accompanying liver transplantation in Estonia

The purpose of this study was to evaluate surgical complications accompanying the introduction of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) in Estonia. Between 1999 and 2009, we performed the first 12 liver transplantations. Eight patients were males and four were females of age range 12 to 67 years. Their diagnoses were cholestatic disease (n = 5); tumor (n = 3); hepatitis C virus cirrhosis (n = 2); Budd-Chiari syndrome (n = 1); and cystic fibrosis (n = 1). Technical complications occurred in 7/12 patients. The early vascular complications in two patients were a suprahepatic vena cava lesion occurring at liver extraction, which resulted in uncontrolled suprahepatic bleeding after liver perfusion; the recipient died during transplantation. The other case displayed a right intrahepatic portal venous thrombosis, which was treated successfully with thrombolysis and anticoagulant therapy. Early biliary complications of biliary leaks occurred in three patients: two had undergone duct-to-duct reconstructions, which were treated by endoscopic retrograde cholangiography that successfully managed the anastomotic and recipient cystic duct leaks with a papillotomy and stenting. In one patient with a duct-to-jejunum anastomosis, a bile leak stopped at 3 weeks but he needed surgical therapy 2 years later due to an anastomotic stricture. Severe decubitus occurred in the lumbosacral region of the subjects with operating times of 14 hours. They required necretectomy and plastic surgery. One of them with postoperative intra-abdominal hypertension also displayed wound eventration requiring reoperations. The rate of hepatic (5/12) and extrahepatic (3/12) surgical complications, as well as of 1-year survival (9/12), in our period of implementation of OLT were satisfactory to continue OLT development in Estonia.