Use of arterial conduit for arterial revascularization during liver and multivisceral transplantation.

Background: At present, revascularization is still one of the most critical technologies in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Hepatic artery (HA) variations occur frequently in both donors and recipients. Moreover, there are always some pathological changes in the recipient hepatic artery. If handled improperly, it may cause complications after anastomosis. Therefore, arterial conduit could be used in primary OLT, re-OLT and multiple-OLT. This study aimed to investigate the indications, methods and techniques with usage of arterial conduit for HA revascularization during adult OLT.

Methods: We reviewed 1200 patients of consecutive OLTs performed during 2000 - 2009 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. Of these patients, 48 recipients with artery variations received HA revascularization with usage of arterial conduit and special postoperative managements. The indications, methods, techniques, and the managements of postoperative complications in adult OLT with usage of arterial conduit for HA revascularization were analyzed.

Results: In 48 cases with artery bypass, the arterial conduit were anastomosed between donor hepatic artery and recipient infrarenal aorta (n = 32), between donor hepatic artery and recipient suprarenal aorta (n = 10), and between donor upper abdominal organ cluster artery and recipient suprarenal aorta (n = 6). The technique was applied in 4% (48/1200 cases) of the whole OLTs performed in the same period, and the patency rate of the conduits was 100%. Forty patients (83.3%) survived, and the average survival time was 3.9 years. Eight patients (16.7%) died (all due to tumor recurrence), while the average survival time was 1.2 years. All these patients have not experienced artery-related complications in their survival time.

Conclusions: When recipient HA has variations or pathological changes in OLT, the donor artery should be anastomosed to recipient abdominal aorta with an arterial conduit to achieve satisfactory outcomes. For arterial anastomosis can not be routinely performed, donor iliac artery as a conduit to be anastomosed with the recipient abdominal aorta is safe and effective.