Right lateral sector graft in adult living-related liver transplantation.
BACKGROUND
A major concern regarding adult living-related liver transplantation (LRLT) is graft-size disparity. The authors report their experience with LRLT using the right lateral sector.


METHODS
Between January 2000 and April 2001, 32 adult-to-adult LRLTs were performed at our institution. Of these, six patients received a right lateral sector (RLS, segments VI and VII according to Couinaud's nomenclature for liver segmentation) graft. The right liver was over 70% of the estimated volume of the whole donor liver. The estimated RLS volume was greater than that of the left liver, which was over 40% of the recipient's standard liver volume.


RESULTS
The postoperative course was uneventful in all donors. All of the patients survived the operation. Three patients were complicated with bile leakage from the dissection plane of the graft. Four patients suffered from acute rejection.


CONCLUSIONS
RLS graft obtained by this procedure may be useful for overcoming borderline graft-recipient size differences and expanding the donor pool.
Sugawara
Yasuhiko
Y
Artificial Organ and Transplantation Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
Makuuchi
Masatoshi
M
Takayama
Tadatoshi
T
Imamura
Hiroshi
H
Kaneko
Junichi
J
D000328:Adult; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000453:epidemiology; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000502:physiology*; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome