Pediatric liver transplantation.
In previous decades, pediatric liver transplantation has become a state-of-the-art operation with excellent success and limited mortality. Graft and patient survival have continued to improve as a result of improvements in medical, surgical and anesthetic management, organ availability, immunosuppression, and identification and treatment of postoperative complications. The utilization of split-liver grafts and living-related donors has provided more organs for pediatric patients. Newer immunosuppression regimens, including induction therapy, have had a significant impact on graft and patient survival. Future developments of pediatric liver transplantation will deal with long-term follow-up, with prevention of immunosuppression-related complications and promotion of as normal growth as possible. This review describes the state-of-the-art in pediatric liver transplantation.
Spada
Marco
M
Istituto Mediterraneo per i Trapianti e Terapie ad alta specializzazione-IsMeTT, Via E. Tricomi 1, 90127 Palermo, Italy. mspada@ismett.edu
Riva
Silvia
S
Maggiore
Giuseppe
G
Cintorino
Davide
D
Gridelli
Bruno
B
D002648:Child; D005190:Family; D006085:Graft Survival; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019520:Living Donors; D018579:Patient Selection; D015996:Survival Rate; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting