title: Left hemihepatectomy in living donors with a thick middle hepatic vein draining the caudal half of the right liver.
abstract: Donor safety is the first consideration in living related liver transplantation. Left hemihepatectomy including the middle hepatic vein is a reasonable donor procedure for obtaining a large graft for living related liver transplantation. This procedure, however, needs to be modified in donors with hepatic venous variation. While carrying out donor hepatectomy, we encountered two cases showing a variant form of hepatic venous drainage comprising a thick middle hepatic vein draining segment 6 of the liver. This variation made it necessary to preserve the middle hepatic vein in the donor liver remnant. Failure to recognize such a variant would result in congestion in the remaining right liver of the donor. To guarantee donor safety, evaluation of the drainage area of the corresponding hepatic vein is a matter of great importance in donor hepatectomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Makuuchi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sano
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Harihara
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsunami
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006503:Hepatic Veins / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012449:Safety; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed