Comparing High- and Low-Model for End-Stage Liver Disease Living-Donor Liver Transplantation to Determine Clinical Efficacy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (CHALICE Study).

Introduction: Various studies have demonstrated that low-Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) living-donor liver transplant (LDLT) recipients have better outcomes with improved patient survival than deceased-donor liver transplantation (DDLT) recipients. LDLT recipients gain the most from being transplanted at MELD <25-30; however, some existing data have outlined that LDLT may provide equivalent outcomes in high-MELD and low-MELD patients, although the term "high" MELD is arbitrarily defined in the literature and various cut-off scores are outlined between 20 and 30, although most commonly, the dividing threshold is 25. The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare LDLT in high-MELD with that in low-MELD recipients to determine patient survival and graft survival, as well as perioperative and postoperative complications.

Ischemic Cholangiopathy Postdonation After Circulatory Death Liver Transplantation: Donor Hepatectomy Time Matters.

Background: Outcomes of liver transplantation (LT) from donation after circulatory death (DCD) have been improving; however, ischemic cholangiopathy (IC) continues to be a problem. In 2014, measures to minimize donor hepatectomy time (DHT) and cold ischemic time (CIT) have been adopted to improve DCD LT outcomes.

Methods: Retrospective review of all patients who underwent DCD LT between 2005 and 2017 was performed.

Acute on Chronic Liver Failure: Factors Associated With Transplantation.

Unlabelled: Acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) carries a poor prognosis unless liver transplantation is offered. We present risk factors associated with proceeding with liver transplantation in patients with ACLF.

Methods: A retrospective review of all patients with ACLF who presented to a single transplant center between January 2016 and December 2017 was performed.

Humanized von Willebrand factor reduces platelet sequestration in ex vivo and in vivo xenotransplant models.

The transplantation of organs across species offers the potential to solve the shortage of human organs. While activation of human platelets by human von Willebrand factor (vWF) requires vWF activation by shear stress, contact between human platelets and porcine vWF (pvWF) leads to spontaneous platelet adhesion and activation. This non-physiologic interaction may contribute to the thrombocytopenia and coagulation pathway dysregulation often associated with xenotransplantation of pig organs in nonhuman primates.