Successful emergency transplantation of a liver allograft from a donor maintained on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
The critical shortage of cadaveric donors for organ transplantation has led many transplant centers to accept life-saving organs from donors who would have previously been refused for transplantation. We report a novel case of the use of a liver allograft from a donor whose oxygen delivery was maintained by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for 29 days before suffering an anoxic brain injury from ECMO dysfunction. Liver transplantation was successfully performed in a patient with fulminant hepatic failure. Immediate graft function was obtained in the recipient, with full neurologic recovery and return to gainful employment 4 months after transplantation. ECMO may provide an intriguing option for the maintenance of organ function in the critically unstable brain-dead organ donor to salvage organs for transplantation. Further studies are currently underway.
Johnson
L B
LB
Department of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore 21201, USA.
Plotkin
J S
JS
Howell
C D
CD
Njoku
M J
MJ
Kuo
P C
PC
Bartlett
S T
ST
D000328:Adult; D001926:Brain Death; D004868:Equipment Failure; D015199:Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation / Q000295:instrumentation; D005260:Female; D006501:Hepatic Encephalopathy / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012128:Respiratory Distress Syndrome; D014019:Tissue Donors