Advances in pediatric liver and intestinal transplantation.
BACKGROUND
Significant progress has been made with liver and intestinal transplantation in pediatric patients. Shortage of whole-organ cadaveric grafts has resulted in a high mortality rate for children awaiting transplantation. New surgical procedures such as split-liver transplantation and living-related liver transplantation have evolved over the last decade to maximize donor utilization in pediatric patients.


METHODS
In this article we review the current indications and contraindications for liver and intestinal transplantation in children, the surgical innovations to expand an exceedingly small cadaveric liver pool, postoperative management, and the impact on patient and graft survival.


RESULTS
Reduced-size liver transplantation provides children with much needed small grafts; however, split-liver transplantation may eliminate the need for reduced-size and living-related liver transplantation except in urgent situations.


CONCLUSIONS
Liver transplantation is a durable procedure that provides excellent long-term survival. The use of living-related and split-liver transplantation has dramatically reduced the waiting periods for children and improved survival. In the past decade significant progress has been made with intestinal transplantation owing to improvements in surgical technique, immunosuppressive agents, and early identification and treatment of postoperative complications.
Ghobrial
R M
RM
University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
Farmer
D G
DG
Amersi
F
F
Busuttil
R W
RW
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002102:Cadaver; D002648:Child; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000637:transplantation*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000379:methods / Q000401:mortality; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D018579:Patient Selection; D012106:Research; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors