Personal experience with the procurement of 132 liver allografts

A single donor surgeon's experience procuring the livers from 132 donors is described. Thirty-seven grafts (28.9%) had hepatic arterial anomalies, 19 (14.4%) of which required arterial reconstruction prior to transplantation. Of the 121 grafts evaluated for early function, 103 grafts (85.2%) functioned well, whereas 14 grafts (11.6%) functioned poorly and 4 grafts (3.3%) failed to function at all. The variables associated with less than optimal function of the graft consisted of donor age (P less than 0.05), duration of donor's stay in the intensive care unit (P less than 0.005), abnormal graft appearance (P less than 0.05), and such recipient problems as vascular thromboses during or immediately following transplantation (P less than 0.005). A new preservation fluid, University of Wisconsin solution, allowed safe and longer cold storage of the liver allograft than did Euro-Collins' solution (P less than 0.0001). A parameter of liver allograft viability, which is simple and predictive of allograft function prior to the actual transplant procedure, is urgently needed.