Results of surgery-related complications in donors of right lobe liver graft: analysis of 272 cases.
BACKGROUND
Living donor liver transplantation has been a new light of hope for patients with end-stage liver failure on the cadaveric waiting list. However, living donor liver transplantation still has ethical problems which cannot be overcome. Exposure of healthy donor candidates to major surgery which can be fatal is the largest of these ethical problems. In this study, we aimed to determine our rate of complications associated with surgery in donors who underwent right lobe donor hepatectomy.


METHODS
Between September 2004 and December 2009, 548 liver donor candidates were examined. The right liver lobe donor hepatectomy was performed on 272 donor candidates who passed the elimination system. Demographic data as well as intraoperative findings, complication rates, and numbers were collected retrospectively. Donor complications were categorized according to the Clavien classification.


RESULTS
Two hundred seventy-two donors who underwent right lobe donor hepatectomy were included in this study. One hundred sixteen (42.6%) of 272 donors were female, whereas 156 (57.4%) were male. There was no donor mortality. Grade 1 and grade 2 complications were observed in 105 (38%) of 272 donors. The most common complications were fever of unknown origin (20.9%) and prolonged hyperbilirubinemia (3.6%). Grade 3 complications and grade 4 complications were observed in 6 donors (2%) and 3 donors (1%), respectively. Three donors were underwent re-operation due to bleeding. The re-laparatomy rate in our series was detected as 1.10%. One donor, categorized as grade 4B according to the Clavien classification, had small bowel perforation and intra-abdominal sepsis secondary to mechanical bowel obstruction.


CONCLUSIONS
Donor mortality is a fact of living donor liver transplantation that cannot be ignored like donor morbidity. However, right liver lobe donor hepatectomy can be performed successfully with minimal complication rates with multidisciplinary and rigorous donor care in the preoperative and postoperative period.
Department of General Surgery, Afyon Kocatepe University School Of Medicine, Afyon, Turkey. Electronic address: dr.mustafaozsoy@gmail.com.
M
M
Ozsoy
Department of General Surgery, Ege University School Of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
O V
OV
Unalp
Department of General Surgery, Ege University School Of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
M
M
Sozbilen
Department of Surgery, Liver Transplantation and Research Center, International Kent Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
M
M
Alper
Department of Surgery, Liver Transplantation and Research Center, International Kent Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
M
M
Kilic
Department of Surgery, Liver Transplantation and Research Center, International Kent Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
M
M
Zeytunlu
D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors; D011182:Postoperative Care