Objectives: This paper presents an innovative technique to address complex multiple hepatic vein (HV) reconstruction in right lobe graft living donor liver transplantation (RL-LDLT).
Methods: A patient with hepatitis C virus-related cirrhosis underwent RL-LDLT. The graft had seven HVs, including: the right HV (17 mm); one segment VII HV (11 mm); two segment VI HVs (6 mm and 16 mm), and three segment V HVs. The graft weighed 663 g (53% of standard liver volume; ratio of graft weight to recipient body weight: 0.96). Each HV had significant drainage territory requiring reconstruction. A cryopreserved iliac vein graft was used to create a sleeve patch to incorporate the HV openings. The holes were anastomosed to their corresponding HV tributaries using continuous 6-0 polydioxanone (PDS) sutures. Two of the three segment V HVs were combined using a smaller iliac vein patch, which was anastomosed in an end-to-side fashion to a previously harvested recipient umbilical vein interposition graft. The other end of the umbilical vein graft was anastomosed to the larger iliac vein sleeve patch.
Results: Overall, six HV openings were incorporated in one sleeve patch to allow a single wide anastomosis with the recipient inferior vena cava. Doppler ultrasound after reconstruction showed adequate flow patterns in all the HVs.
Conclusions: All-in-one sleeve patch graft venoplasty simplifies the reconstruction of multiple HVs and reduces warm ischaemia time in RL-LDLT with excellent outcomes.
© 2012 International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association.