Objective: To explore the experience of hepatic arterial reconstruction and management of its complications.
Methods: The clinical data of 570 consecutive orthotopic liver transplantation patients performed from May 2001 to May 2009 in Peking University People's Hospital were analyzed retrospectively in order to summarize the key factors of hepatic arterial reconstruction and the experience of management of its complications.
Results: Arterial complications developed in 18 (3.1%) of the 570 patients including 11 cases of hepatic artery thrombosis, 5 cases of hepatic artery stenosis and 2 cases of hepatic artery rupture. Of the 11 cases with early complication (within 4 weeks), 7 patients died, including 2 due to the rupture of hepatic artery and 5 due to acute liver failure and sepsis of hepatic artery thrombosis. Of the 7 cases with late complication, 4 patients died, including 1 due to graft failure and 3 due to ischemic-type biliary complications.
Conclusion: Good quality of donor artery and proper choice of microsurgical anastomosis technique in hepatic artery reconstruction could significantly reduce the incidence of its complication. Early detection and diagnosis with active early interventional therapy can improve prognosis of the patients.