Experimental porcine orthotopic liver transplantation: a training protocol for transplantation in humans

The authors suggest that, prior to human liver transplantations, exhaustive training be undertaken on an animal model in order to acquire the expertise required for this delicate procedure. The pig has considerable anatomic similarities to man, as well as a comparable physiological and hemodynamic sensitivity, and has been used as a model by our experimental team to perfect our clinical liver transplantation technique. In particular, a surgical model representing the adult donor/child recipient situation has been developed. Anesthesia, extracorporeal bypass procedure and the full surgical protocol are described. This operative protocol was elaborated to mimic as closely as possible the clinical situation. Our model also allowed us to undertake several relevant physiological and pharmacological studies during the transplantation procedure.