Postoperative complications in living liver donors: A retrospective study, single-center experience in Saudi Arabia

Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) offers life to patients with end-stage liver disease. The balance between the benefit to the recipient and the risk to the donor plays a central role in justifying LDLT. However, the incidence rates of complications posttransplant differ widely. This study is designed to identify postoperative complications in LDLT in a tertiary care center King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC). This was a retrospective cohort study. All donors at KAMC between January 2003 and December 2015 were reviewed through a hospital database and patient charts to determine the postoperative complications based on the modified Clavien classification system. All donors were relatives of the recipients and assessed before the surgery. A total of 101 donors underwent LDLT: 75 were male and 26 were female, with a mean age of 27.7 ± 6.6. The breakdown of specific surgical procedures was as follows: 65 (64.3%) donors underwent right hepatic lobectomy, 31 (30.6%) underwent left lateral hepatectomy, three (2.97%) underwent extended right hepatectomy with the inclusion of the middle hepatic vein, and two (1.98%) underwent left hepatectomy. Postoperative complications were determined in 20 patients (19.8%), but no mortality was observed. Complications were reported in 14 (21.5%) right and six (19.4%) left lateral hepatectomy donors. A total of 12 patients had Grade I complications, six patients had Grade II complications, and Grade III complications were reported in two cases. The most frequent complications were upper limb weakness to brachial plexus neuropathy and mild bile leak. Life-threatening complications in our center have not been reported in LDLT; however, some donors may experience postoperative morbidity, which usually were mild and had a good prognosis.