Purpose: To propose a comprehensive imaging algorithm of living donors for liver transplantation allowing virtual presurgical planning.
Material and methods: Prospective CT and MRI evaluation of 20 patients selected as potential living donors for liver transplantation, between June 2001 and March 2003. For each patient, a virtual hepatectomy according to anatomical biliary and vascular variations, total liver Volume and residual liver Volume, were simulated. The imaging results were correlated to the surgical findings.
Results: CT and MRI demonstrated thirty-five vascular and biliary anatomical variations in 17 patients. Knowledge of these variations resulted in modification of the surgical planning in 6 cases. Four additional variations were described at surgery. The virtual graft Volumes correlated well to the surgical ones (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: CT and MRI are useful for the presurgical evaluation of living donors prior to liver transplantation. Estimation of the residual liver Volume allows a good prediction of the postsurgical outcome.