title: Surgical experience in splitting donor liver into left lateral and right extended lobes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To outline the surgical experience with donor liver splitting in split liver transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  From March 1 to September 1 in 2004, 10 donor livers were split ex situ into a left lateral lobe (segments II and III) and a right extended lobe (segments I, IV-VIII) in Medical School of Hannover, and thereafter split liver transplantation was performed successfully in 19 cases. The average age, weight and ICU staying period of the donors were 32.7 years (15-51 years), 64.5 kg (45-75 kg) and 2.4 d (1-8 d) respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average weight of the whole graft and the left lateral lobe was 1,322.6 g (956-1,665 g) and 281.8 g (198-373 g) respectively, and the average ratio of left lateral lobe to the whole graft was 0.215 (0.178-0.274). The average graft to recipient weight ratio (GRWR) of the left lateral lobe and the right extended lobe reached 2.44% (1.22-5.41%) and 1.73% (1.31-2.30%) respectively. On average it took approximately 105 min (85-135 min) to split the donor liver. Five donor organs showed anatomic variation including the left hepatic vein variation in two cases, the left hepatic artery variation in two cases and the bile duct variation in one case.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Split liver transplantation has become a mature surgical technique to expand the donor pool with promising results. In the process of graft splitting, close attention needs to be paid to potential anatomic variations, especially to variations of the left hepatic vein, the left hepatic artery, and the bile duct.
authors: Department of Surgery, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai 200025, China. jiqiyan@yahoo.com
authors: Ji-Qi
authors: JQ
authors: Yan
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Becker
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Neipp
authors: Cheng-Hong
authors: CH
authors: Peng
authors: Rainer
authors: R
authors: Lueck
authors: Frank
authors: F
authors: Lehner
authors: Hong-Wei
authors: HW
authors: Li
authors: Juergen
authors: J
authors: Klempnauer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D017093:Liver Failure / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000379:methods*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous