Guidelines for surgical procedures after liver transplantation.

OBJECTIVE: The first purpose of this study is to identify the types and incidences of surgical procedures in patients who have previously undergone liver transplantation, with particular focus on the complication rates and the lengths of hospital stay. The second purpose is to present the management guidelines for patients with liver transplants at the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative stages of surgical procedure. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: The surgical literature on this issue is scant, and with the growing liver transplant patient population it is not unlikey for any surgery specialist to have to operate on a patient who has undergone liver transplantation. METHODS: A sample of 409 patients with available hospital records, with a minimum of a 2-year follow-up, and with telephone access for interviews was chosen. Type of surgery, time from the liver transplant, hospital stay, immunosuppressive regimen, and complications were recorded. RESULTS: A large proportion of patients (24.2%) underwent some type of surgical procedure 2 to 10 years after liver transplantation. The authors demonstrate that most of the elective procedures can be safely carried out without an increased incidence of complication and without longer hospital stay than the general population. Conversely, emergent procedures are plagued by a greater incidence of complications that not only affect the function of the liver graft but may risk the life of the patient.     

General surgical procedures after heart transplantation

Seventy-eight cardiac transplantations were performed between July 1982 and March 1989. The perioperative death rate was 10%. Overall survival was 86%. Among the long-term survivors, 14 patients underwent 16 noncardiac surgical procedures. Seven of them required emergency laparotomy, four for biliary tract disease, one for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, one for suspected abdominal sepsis and one for enterocolitis. Elective surgical interventions included repair of symptomatic abdominal wall hernia, treatment of hemorrhoids or perianal condylomas, total hip arthroplasty, maxillary sinus drainage and resection of a duodenal villous adenoma. Preoperatively, all patients received cyclosporine orally. Ten of the 14 patients were on triple-drug immunosuppression (cyclosporine, azathioprine and low-dose prednisone [less than 0.20 mg/kg daily]). The remaining four patients took cyclosporine with either azathioprine or prednisone. There were no deaths. Complications were limited to residual choledocholithiasis treated by percutaneous removal, two cases of wound infection and an incisional hernia. The authors' experience indicates that noncardiac surgical procedures may be safely performed in patients who have received a heart transplant.     

Renal transplantation in infants and small children

There are still concerns about renal transplantation in small children. The aim of this study was to identify prenatal data, underlying diseases, patient and graft survival, graft function and growth in young renal transplant recipients at our center. A retrospective analysis was performed on 50 kidney transplants performed during the period 1981–2008 in children weighing <13 kg. Their median age at transplantation was 1.4 (range 0.4–3.7) years and the median weight was 9.5 (3.4–12.1) kg. The underlying diseases were congenital in 88% of the patients and acquired in 12%. Ten-year patient survival was 88% (82% before 1998 and 95% since 1998). Ten-year graft survival was 82% (75 and 95%, respectively). Graft function (glomerular filtration rate) deteriorated from a mean of 75–48 ml/min/1.73 m² within 10 years. There was rapid catch-up growth within the first years post-transplant, from a median height of −2.44 standard deviation score (SDS) at transplantation to −0.74 SDS after 3 years. In small children, patient and graft survival were as good as those in older children. Renal function deteriorated during the first years post-transplant but stabilized within a few years. In most children, there was a substantial improvement in growth within the first years after transplantation.     

Renal tumor size: comparison between computed tomography and surgical measurements

OBJECTIVE: We studied the agreement between renal tumor size as assessed on computed tomography (CT) before surgery and that measured during histopathological examination on the radical nephrectomy specimen. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 100 consecutive patients treated with radical nephrectomy for a renal tumor. The tumor size was determined in all patients by the largest diameter shown within the month before surgery on contrast-enhanced CT and as measured postoperatively by the pathologist. A possible influence of the clinical and pathological parameters was assessed in a multivariate analysis. RESULTS: CT estimate and surgical measurement of tumor size were highly correlated (r = 0.9; p<0.001). Median (range) tumor size was 70.0 mm (13-180) and 60.0 mm (10-180) as measured, respectively, on CT and in the specimen, with a significant difference (p = 0.005). Multiple regression did not reveal any significant influence of tumor side, location, type, nuclear grade as well as patient gender, body mass index and radiological center (p>0.3 in all cases). The extent of difference between CT and surgical measurements was significantly influenced by the surgical size of the tumor (p = 0.03): the smaller the tumor, the more the CT overestimated the tumor size. If nephron-sparing surgery had been planned for tumors equal to or less than 40 mm, 24 patients would have been selected following the CT estimate, while 27 patients would have met this criterion on the surgical measurement. CONCLUSION: Renal tumors were statistically smaller than the estimate from CT, although this was not systematically the case. This should be kept in mind when issuing recommendations on the optimal cutoff size value under which nephron-sparing surgery is considered equivalent to radical nephrectomy.     

Renal carbuncle: comparison between surgical open drainage and closed percutaneous drainage

This article represents a retrospective study of 12 patients with renal carbuncle treated at the combined urological services of The Mason Clinic in Seattle, Washington, and Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. All patients were initially treated with antibiotics. Two recovered without further treatment. Of the 10 patients who failed to respond, 2 underwent nephrectomy for nonfunctioning kidneys, 4 underwent closed percutaneous drainage, and 4 underwent surgical open drainage. All patients treated with open surgical drainage recovered and retained functioning kidneys. Of the 4 patients who underwent closed percutaneous drainage, 2 failed to respond and required subsequent emergency nephrectomy because of sepsis. The authors believe that renal exploration and open drainage should be the initial definitive mode of surgical treatment of renal carbuncle in those patients who fail antibiotic therapy alone.     

Renal transplantation in patients with a small bladder

BACKGROUND: In patients undergoing kidney transplantation with a small bladder, many surgeons are faced with technical difficulties about the implantation as well as about satisfactory bladder rehabilitation. The objective of this study was to clarify the clinical outcomes of patients with end-stage renal disease who had a bladder capacity of less than 100 mL on preoperative voiding cystourethrogram after renal transplantation using extravesical ureteroneocystostomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively studied 345 patients with end-stage renal disease who underwent renal transplantation between April 2002 and June 2006. These patients were classified into two groups according to their preoperatively estimated bladder capacity using a voiding cystourethrogram. Group A had a bladder capacity of less than 100 mL (n = 23; 6.7%) and group B had a capacity of 100 mL or more (n = 322; 93.3%). For each group, the clinical outcome, including serum creatinine level at 1 month and 1 year after transplantation, bladder capacity, surgical complications, and prevalence of urinary tract infection (UTI) requiring hospital admission were recorded and the graft survival rate calculated. RESULTS: Compared with group B, group A had undergone a longer duration of dialysis and required cadaveric kidney transplantation more frequently (P < .05). Postoperative surgical complications occurred in nine cases. There was no difference in the frequency of surgical complications and UTI requiring hospital admission between group A and group B. At 1 year posttransplant, bladder capacity was 342.0 +/- 43.8 mL (range, 300-400 mL) and 429.1 +/- 75.9 mL (range, 200-500 mL), respectively (P = .015). There was no statistical difference between the groups in the serum creatinine level and the graft survival rate at 5 years after transplantation (100% vs 92.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Similar to patients with a normal bladder size, renal transplantation can be successfully achieved in patients with a small bladder. Attempts to increase the bladder capacity by programmed training of the bladder and bladder expansion by surgical intervention seem unnecessary.     

Prevention of genital prolapse following Burch colposuspension: comparison between two surgical procedures

 Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of cul-de-sac obliteration in preventing pelvic floor anatomical defects formation following Burch colposuspension. We evaluated 441 patients who had undergone Burch colposuspension. The patients were divided into two groups: group A (132 patients) who underwent Burch colposuspension only, and group B (309 patients) who had had a concomitant cul-de-sac obliteration. Cul-de-sac obliteration was performed using two different techniques, the Moschocowitz procedure in 131 patients, and approximation of the sacrouterine ligaments in 178 patients. The follow-up period was 8.6 years (range 3–16). In total we found 43/441 (9.7%) postoperative anatomical defects. Obliteration of the cul de sac significantly (P<0.0001) reduced the formation of anatomical defects compared to Burch colposuspension. In a comparison of the two surgical procedures for cul-de-sac obliteration, the approximation of the sacrouterine ligaments was significantly more effective than either the Moschcowitz procedure (P<0.001) or the Burch colposuspension alone (P<0.001). The Moschcowitz procedure reduced the formation of anatomical defects to 15/131 (11.4%) compared to Burch colposuspension only (25/132; 18.9%), but statistically the difference was insignificant. The time of anatomical defect detection was significantly reduced after cul-de-sac obliteration: 2 years 6/25 (24%) in group A compared to 1/8 (5.5%) in group B (P<0.01). After 5 years the detection rate was 64% (16/25) and 22.2% (4/18) respectively (P<0.01). It was concluded that cul-de-sac obliteration using approximation of the sacrouterine ligaments significantly reduced the incidence of anatomical defect formation following Burch colposuspension. A long follow-up period is needed to evaluate the truce incidence. Received: 2 October 2002 / Accepted: 2 July 2002     

Results following reduction mammoplasties. A comparison of selected surgical procedures

Lactation-retaining reducing mammoplasty was performed on 144 cases for macromastia, with 54 of them being carried out by the Biesenberger/Gelbke method and 90 according to the procedure by Str?mbeck. Complications due to wound healing disorders occurred only to eleven in 98 mammae (separate evaluation) treated by the Str?mbeck procedure but affected every second patient operated on by the Biesenberger/Gelbke method. In 14 patients postoperative capability of lactation was found to be unambiguously correlated with unimpaired wound healing. Postoperative pathological alterations in mammary glands may cause problems in differential diagnosis. Mitigation of clinico-somatic complaints was found to be obtainable from either surgical approach, depending on wound healing. Aesthetic results are the same.     

上腹部器官簇移植手术方式的探讨

目的探讨上腹部器官簇移植治疗多脏器恶性肿瘤的可行性及临床效果。方法上腹部器官簇移植受者2例,其中男、女各1例;均为胰腺癌肝转移患者。2例患者分别于2004年5月和8月接受上腹部器官簇移植治疗,切除脏器包括全胃、肝脏、胰腺、脾脏、十二指肠及部分空肠,移植器官簇包括肝脏、胰腺、十二指肠。其中1例胰腺肿物侵犯肠系膜上动脉（SMA）,切断SMA后,其远端与右髂总动脉吻合重建血供。结果2例患者于术后4h及5h清醒,8h及10h后撤除呼吸机;术后第3天及第5天从外科加强治疗病房转至普通病房。肝功能指标在手术1周后趋于正常;胰腺功能在10d内达到正常范围。1例患者存活12个月,死于肿瘤复发;另1例术后恢复平稳,术后20d自动出院。结论肝胰十二指肠器官簇移植为上腹部局部多脏器恶性肿瘤提供了一种手术上可行并具有一定疗效的治疗方法。     

Lung transplantation for cystic fibrosis after thoracic surgical procedures

During their life, cystic fibrosis (CF) patients may require thoracic surgical procedures for a number of reasons before undergoing lung transplantation. In the past, this has been considered to be a contraindication to lung transplantation. However, a meticulous surgical technique and careful intraoperative management allows one to perform the transplantation safely. Herein we have reported our experience with CF patients undergoing lung transplantation after previous surgical treatment for pneumothorax or bronchiectasis.     

Renal transplantation in infants.

The timing of renal transplantation in infants is controversial. Between 1965 and 1989, 79 transplants in 75 infants less than 2 years old were performed: 23 who were 12 months or younger, 52 who were older than 12 months; 63 donors were living related, 1 was living unrelated, and 15 were cadaver donors; 75 were primary transplants and 4 were retransplants. Infants were considered for transplantation when they were on, or about to begin, dialysis. All had intra-abdominal transplants with arterial anastomosis to the distal aorta. Sixty-four per cent are alive with functioning grafts. The most frequent etiologies of renal failure were hypoplasia (32%) and obstructive uropathy (20%); oxalosis was the etiology in 11%. Since 1983 patient survival has been 95% and 91% at 1 and 5 years; graft survival has been 86% and 73% at 1 and 5 years. For cyclosporine immunosuppressed patients, patient survival is 100% at 1 and 5 years; graft survival is 96% and 82% at 1 and 5 years. There was no difference in outcome between infants who were 12 months or younger versus those who were aged 12 to 24 months; similarly there was no difference between infants and older children. Sixteen (21%) patients died: 5 after operation from coagulopathy (1) and infection (4); and 11 late from postsplenectomy sepsis (4), recurrent oxalosis (3), infection (2), and other causes (2). Routine splenectomy is no longer done. There has not been a death from infection in patients transplanted since 1983. Rejection was the most common cause of graft loss (in 15 patients); other causes included death (with function) (7), recurrent oxalosis (3), and technical complications (3). Overall 52% of patients have not had a rejection episode; mean creatinine level in patients with functioning grafts is 0.8 +/- 0.2 mg/dL. Common postoperative problems include fever, atelectasis, and ileus. At the time of their transplants, the infants were small for age; but with a successful transplant, their growth, head circumference, and development have improved. Transplantation in infants requires an intensive multidisciplinary approach but yields excellent short- and long-term survival rates that are no different from those seen in older children or adults. Living donors should be used whenever possible. Patients with a successful transplantation experience improved growth and development, with excellent rehabilitation.     

Evaluation of surgical procedures. Changing patterns of patient selection and costs in heart transplantation.

During the past 4 years we have observed a marked increase in costs of heart transplantation in our center. This trend coincides with a shift in our recipient population toward the more severely ill patients. The percentage of patients bound for the intensive care unit has doubled. In analyzing the components of cost, we find that the length of stay, both in special care and regular nursing units, accounts for most of the cost increase. In our study of outcomes we find no significant difference in survival, at 1 month and 1 year, between recipients operated on from the intensive care unit and those not in intensive care. We find that at 1 year after transplantation, approximately 80% of patients are rehabilitated, which we define as the ability to work or to go to school. Only 20% of patients are off disability rolls, however, primarily because of problems related to insurance and the cost of continuing care, including drugs. We conclude that the comprehensive evaluation of surgical procedures requires an approach that balances costs with results on a continuing and long-term basis.     

Renal transplantation in children.

23 children aged 1--16 years of age have received renal transplantation during the years 1972-1975 at the Downstate Medical Center. Of 9 children transplanted from related donors, I died and 3 lost their kidney-2 were retransplanted; 1 lost the second graft. Of 14 children transplanted from cadaver donors, 2 died, and 3 lost their kidney. 3 were retransplanted; 2 of them lost the second and 1 the third kidney as wll. Hypertension is the most frequent early and late posttransplant complication. 65% of the original 25 patients now have functioning grafts and they are rehabilitated. The success of renal transplantation in children is similar to that in adults.     

First successful clinical small intestine transplantation. Tactics and surgical technic

A case of successful clinical small bowel transplantation is demonstrated. A segment of 60 cm of jejunum and ileum has been harvested from the sister of the recipient and has been brought in heterotopic position in the first operative step. It was anastomosed to the recipient's GI-tract 6 weeks later. This procedure has the advantage that the graft can recover from ischemic damage in heterotopic position and that an immunological steady state can be achieved. This case of successful clinical small bowel transplantation offers a new causal therapy for patients with short gut syndrome.