Call Today
1-800-238-7828
 |
|
  
Liver transplants from 'suboptimal' donors can be successful
Last Updated: 2001-02-21 11:30:45 EST (Reuters Health)
By Sue Mulley
HONG KONG (Reuters Health) - Many potential donor livers are being discarded unnecessarily, according to Dr. Albert Ka-keung Chui of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Prince of Wales Hospital. "This is true all around the world, but especially in Asia where there is a lack of experienced liver transplant surgeons," he said in an interview with Reuters Health at the Sixth Congress of the Asian Society of Hepato-Biliary Pancreatic Surgery in Hong Kong.
"In Asia there is too much reliance on living related donor livers which gives people a false sense of security. There have been three documented and four unconfirmed deaths in living related donors around the world. Live liver donors run the risk of developing everlasting complications, such as bile duct stricture," Dr. Chui said.
Dr. Chui and his colleagues reviewed data on 322 primary adult cadaveric liver transplants, and found that outcomes are often good with transplants from donors who would historically be considered suboptimal.
"Only moderate and severe steatotic liver grafts, and graft cold ischaemic time were independently associated with primary graft dysfunction," he reported. Other factors such as advanced age, use of inotropes, prolonged intensive care stay, cardiac arrest, and hypotension--often believed to lead to adverse outcomes--were not found to be significant unless they co-existed, he explained.
In a separate study of 10 liver transplant patients who received suboptimal grafts, all are "doing well" at 12 months followup, Dr. Chui said in the interview.
-Westport Newsroom 203 319 2700
|
Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters Limited content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent of Reuters Limited. Reuters Limited shall not be liable for any error or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
|
|
 Back To Transplant Wellness Center
|
