title: Arterial complications after liver transplantation.
abstract: From September 1988 through April 1998, 1,000 liver transplantations were performed on 911 patients. During the postoperative control examinations of 837 patients, we found 23 (2.74 %) with hepatic artery thromboses, 27 stenoses of the hepatic artery (3.22 %), and 6 aneurysms of the graft artery. Seventeen patients underwent retransplantation because of arterial complications. Depending on the clinical symptoms, we treated both the local situation as well as the resulting complications of inadequate arterial graft flow. The aneurysms were primarily treated surgically. The first choice of treatment of stenoses was balloon angioplasty. Early postoperative artery thromboses were also treated surgically by thrombectomy in selected cases. For the resulting biliary and local septic complications we preferred endoscopic and drainage procedures. Our clinical experiences have led us to find pretransplantation angiography recommendable, especially in the case of splanchnic artery stenoses, for bypassing from the aorta for arterial perfusion of the graft.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Charité, Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany. utzsettmacher@charite.de
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Settmacher
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stange
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Haase
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heise
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Steinmüller
authors.forename: W O
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Bechstein
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Neuhaus
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000783:Aneurysm / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006499:Hepatic Artery; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome