[Current aspects of liver allograft pathology]

Liver allograft pathology continues to play an important role in the diagnosis and management of complications in the course of liver transplantation. This article summarizes important patterns of liver damage and also considers new aspects of transplant pathology from the literature. In the context of transplant rejection, late cellular rejection has aroused new interest. Histopathological changes in late rejection differ from acute cellular rejection and there seem to be similarities to de novo autoimmune hepatitis and idiopathic post-transplant hepatitis. Central perivenulitis is a typical change in late cellular rejection and should be differentiated from central toxic necrosis. Other important areas of transplant pathology include vascular and biliary changes resulting from surgical complications or as sequelae of immunosuppressive therapy. Furthermore, disease recurrence plays an important role and combined patterns of disease poses a challenge for the pathologist.