title: Successful emergency transplantation of a liver allograft from a donor maintained on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore 21201, USA.
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Plotkin
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Howell
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Njoku
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Bartlett
mesh_terms: 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