title: [Study of biliary anatomy in living related liver transplantation].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anatomic variations of the biliary tree are frequent and increase complications after liver transplantation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the anatomy of the bile ducts of donors and recipients of living related liver transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  From March 1998 to September 2002, the study was retrospective (23 transplantations). From October 2002 to August 2003, the study was prospective (17 transplantations). We studied the hepatic anatomy of 80 consecutive patients (40 donors and 40 recipients) of the living-related liver transplantation program of the "Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Federal do Paraná" and the "Hospital Nossa Senhora das Graças", Curitiba, PR, Brazil; 51 were male (27 recipients 24 donors) and 29 female (13 recipients and 16 donors). The median age among the donors was 32.6 years and among the recipients was 36.3 years. Thirty-two recipients were adults and 8 recipients were under 15 years old. The bile duct anatomy was studied by magnetic resonance cholangiography in 33 patients, and anomalies were seen in 3 of them (9.1%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most prevalent variation of bile ducts was the fusion of the right posterior duct with the left duct (6.06%; n=2). In the 40 harvesting operations, the right bile duct was single in 25 patients (87.5%), among the 32 right-lobe donors, double in 2 (6.25%) and triple in 2 (6.25%). All of the eight left livers procured had single bile ducts. Among the 40 recipients, the common bile duct was bifurcated in 2 of them (5%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of biliary anomalies is high in patients subjected to living liver transplantation and some anomalies are not diagnosed with preoperative imaging exams.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Transplante Hepático, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR.
authors.forename: Renato Vianna
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Júlio Cezar U
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.forename: Jorge E F
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Matias
authors.forename: Alexandre C T
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: de Freitas
authors.forename: Clementino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zeni-Neto
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: de Godoy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001652:Bile Ducts / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology; D001656:Biliary Atresia / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D049448:Cholangiopancreatography, Magnetic Resonance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies