Experience with orthotopic rat liver transplantation

300 orthotopic liver transplantations in rats were performed for a variety of reasons. Male rats including Lewis, ACI, Wistar, and SD, with a body weight of 150 to 400 g, were used as liver donors and recipients. A midline abdominal incision was performed in both donor and recipient animals. The donor's liver was perfused through the aorta abdominalis. The recipient's liver was flushed via the protal vein (PV) with 2 ml of lactated Ringer's solution immediately after occlusion of the PV to make intrahepatic blood enter the circulation. The bile duct was reconstructed by end-to-end anastomosis via a Teflon catheter. The cuff technique was applied to anastomoses of the infrahepatic vena cava (VC) and PV. The suprahepatic VC was anastomosed using either suture or cuff technique. The operative success rate was 92.7% (278/300) on the average and 1-week survival rate 88.4% (199/225) in isografting. The model proved reliable for studies of liver transplantation.