Outcome following right-extended split liver transplantation in the recent transplant era: Single-center analysis of a German transplant center

Introduction: When a sufficiently high-quality liver is available, classic liver graft splitting is performed. In such cases, a small child receives the left-lateral split graft, with subsequent transplantation of the right-extended graft in an adult.

Methods: We analyzed 64 patients who received right-extended liver grafts from 2007 to 2015, and compared outcomes between cases of external vs in-house graft splitting.

Results: We found excellent donor data and comparable recipient characteristics. Cold ischemic time was significantly longer for external (14 ± 2 hours; n = 38) vs internal (12 ± 2 hours; n = 26) liver graft splitting. Compared to the internal splitting group, the external liver graft splitting group showed significantly reduced 1- and 5-year patient survival (100% vs 84%; P = .035) and higher rates of biliary (24% vs 12%) and vascular (8% vs 0%) complications.

Conclusions: The outcomes following right-extended split LTX are disappointing given the excellent organ quality. External liver graft splitting was associated with worse outcome and surgical complication rates. This may be related to the prolonged cold ischemic time due to twofold transportation, as well as the ignorance of the splitting procedure details and related pitfalls.