State of the Art of Robotic Surgery in Organ Transplantation

Within the last two decades the application of minimally invasive surgical technologies has shown significant benefits when it comes to complex surgical procedures. Lower rates of complications and higher patient satisfaction are commonly reported. Until recently these benefits were inaccessible for patients with solid organ transplantation, because conventional laparoscopy was seen as nonapplicable in such technically demanding procedures. The introduction of the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System, with its inherent advantages, has expanded the ability to complete solid organ transplantation in a minimally invasive fashion. Robotic applications in kidney, pancreas, and liver transplantation have been reported. The initial results showed the viability of this technique in the field. The most extensive experience has been described in kidney transplantation. Over 700 donor nephrectomies and more than 70 renal transplants have been performed successfully with the robotic system. The proven advantage of the robotic technique, especially in obese kidney recipients, is a significantly lower rate of surgical site infection, which in these highly immunosuppressed patients is reflected in superior outcomes. The first results in pancreas transplantation and living donor hepatectomy are very promising; however, larger series are needed in order to address the value of the robotic surgery in these areas of solid organ transplantation.     

Anatomical keys and pitfalls in living donor liver transplantation

The surgery of living donor liver transplantation is more technically challenging than cadaveric whole liver transplantation and liver resection for the treatment of various pathological conditions. It requires a thorough understanding of the intra- and extra-hepatic anatomical relationships between the portal vein, hepatic artery, biliary tract, and hepatic vein, and also their respective contributions to liver physiology. Although a precise understanding of general anatomical principles is the key to correctly performing living donor liver transplantation procedures, anatomic anomalies are often present, and the means of detecting them and the surgical methods of coping with them represent technical challenges. In this monograph, we describe the anatomical keys and pitfalls of living donor liver transplantation surgery based on our own experience with more than 1800 hepatectomies, and 150 living donor liver transplantations. We also elaborate on techniques of selective intermittent vascular occlusion and their teleological and practical background. Received: June 1, 2000 / Accepted: June 24, 2000     

Split liver transplantation

Seventy-five thousand Americans develop organ failure each year. Fifteen percent of those on the list for transplantation die while waiting. Several possible mechanisms to expand the organ pool are being pursued including the use of extended criteria donors, living donation, and split deceased donor transplants. Cadaveric organ splitting results from improved understanding of the surgical anatomy of the liver derived from Couinaud. Early efforts focused on reduced-liver transplantation (RLT) reported by both Bismuth and Broelsch in the mid-1980s. These techniques were soon modified to create both a left lateral segment graft appropriate for a pediatric recipient and a right trisegment for an appropriately sized adult. Techniques of split liver transplantation (SLT) were also modified to create living donor liver transplantation. Pichlmayr and Bismuth reported successful split liver transplantation in 1989 and Emond reported a larger series of nine split procedures in 1990. Broelsch and Busuttil described a technical modification in which the split was performed in situ at the donor institution with surgical division completed in the heart beating cadaveric donor. In situ splitting reduces cold ischemia, simplifies identification of biliary and vascular structures, and reduces reperfusion hemorrhage. However, in situ splits require specialized skills, prolonged operating room time, and increased logistical coordination at the donor institution. At UCLA over 120 in situ splits have been performed and this technique is the default when an optimal donor is available. Split liver transplantation now accounts for 10% of adult transplantations at UCLA and 40% of pediatric transplantations.     

Elective Surgical Patients as Living Organ Donors: A Clinical and Ethical Innovation

We propose a new model for living organ donation that would invite elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients to become volunteer, unrelated living kidney donors. Such donors would be surgical patients first and living donors second, in contrast to the current system, which 'creates' a surgical patient by operating on a healthy individual. Elective surgery patients have accepted the risks of anesthesia and surgery for their own surgical needs but would face additional surgical risks when a donor nephrectomy is combined with their cholecystectomy procedure. Because these two procedures have never been performed together, the precise level of additional risk entailed in such a combined approach is unknown and will require further study. However, considering the large number of elective cholecystectomies performed each year in the United States, if as few as 5% of elective cholecystectomy patients agreed to also serve as living kidney donors, the number of living kidney donors would increase substantially. If this proposal is accepted by a minority of patients and surgeons, and proves safe and effective in a protocol study, it could be applied to other elective abdominal surgery procedures and used to obtain other abdominal donor organs (e.g. liver and intestinal segments) for transplantation.     

Splitlebertransplantation

Split-liver transplantation is now established as a safe and successful technique that extends the donor pool for patients of all ages and thus reduces waiting-list mortality, although it can not solve the problem of organ shortage alone. Split-liver transplantation additionally represents an alternative to living liver transplantation without a potential risk of harm to the donor. Careful selection of donor and recipient, high technical and surgical skill, and experience are necessary to achieve results comparable to those of whole organ transplantation.     

The dilemma of living liver donor death: to report or not to report?

Living donor liver transplantation has become a life-saving alternative for end-stage liver disease patients who have no chance of receiving a deceased donor organ. On the basis of information available to the medical community, mortality risk for the living donor is reviewed and implications of not reporting donor deaths are discussed.     

Laparoscopic Living Donor Nephrectomy: Low Surgical Risk for High-quality Grafts

Renal transplantation is most important for patients with end-stage renal disease to preserve their survival and quality of life. Living donation has decisive advantages over deceased donor kidney transplantation, and with the continuing organ shortage, it also can reduce the number of patients waiting for an organ. The major problem with living kidney donation is that a healthy person has to undergo a substantial surgical procedure to provide the organ for transplantation; therefore, a nephrectomy technique that is associated with the lowest surgical risk for the donor and the best organ quality for the recipient should be used. Since its introduction by Ratner and colleagues in 1995, laparoscopic donor nephrectomy has become the technique of choice at many major transplant centres. The aim is to achieve less postoperative pain, shorter hospitalisation time, more rapid return to normal activities, a more cosmetically acceptable incision, and, in particular, a greater patient acceptance. All techniques for living donor nephrectomy (open donor nephrectomy, “pure” laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, robot-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, laparoscopic donor nephrectomy via natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery or laparoendoscopic single-site surgery, and retroperitoneoscopic donor nephrectomy) achieve good results, in so far as they are performed at specialised centres. Perioperative complications are rare, and the quality of the grafts is excellent. Renal graft function is specified at up to 96% at 1 yr and 85% at 5 yr after living donor kidney transplantation.Patient summaryLiving donation has decisive advantages over deceased donor kidney transplantation. When performed at specialised centres, living donor nephrectomy achieves good results, with few perioperative complications and excellent graft quality.     

Xenon anesthesia for liver transplant surgery: a report of four cases

It is well established that patients presenting for orthotopic liver transplantation pose challenging surgical and anesthesiological problems. Intraoperatively, severe hemodynamic instability due to profuse bleeding and acute cardiomyopathy during reperfusion are major concerns. In addition, ischemia-reperfusion injury can compromise postoperative graft function. Xenon, with its potential to maintain hemodynamic stability, preserve cardiac function, and protect the liver graft of the recipient, seems to be a promising anesthetic agent for liver transplant surgery. To date, xenon has not been used as an anesthetic in liver transplantations. We therefore have reported our initial experience with four patients who underwent orthotopic deceased donor liver transplantation under xenon anesthesia. Although all patients had advanced liver disease and experienced significant intraoperative bleeding, their intraoperative courses, including reperfusion, under xenon anesthesia were remarkably stable. The patients required only moderate, temporary catecholamine support, which was withdrawn at the end of the surgery. Xenon anesthesia for liver transplant procedures proved to be feasible. Immediate postoperative organ function was satisfactory in all patients.     

Anaesthesia for living-donor liver transplantation

In Japan, living-donor liver transplantation has long been the only solution for end-stage liver disease. During the past 10 years, 526 cases of living-donor liver transplantation have been performed at Kyoto University Hospital. This report reviews the authors experience of anaesthesia. The most important issue is the safety of the donor. As the percentage of adult recipients has increased, so has the age of donors and because risk for the donor increases with age, careful preoperative evaluation of the donor by the anaesthetist is needed. The principal differences between living-donor liver transplantation and cadaveric donor liver transplantation are surgical technique (the former is always a partial liver transplantation) and viability of the graft (should always be better with a living donor). The major problems concerning the intraoperative management of recipients in living-donor liver transplantation are how to deal with massive blood loss and postreperfusion syndrome.     

Quality improvement in the care of live liver donors: implementation of the Designated Donor Nurse Program

Publications on living donor liver transplant have focused on the medical aspects of donor selection, postoperative management, surgical procedures, and outcomes, but little attention has been given to the nursing implications for care of live liver donors during their inpatient stay. Donor advocates from various disciplines are involved during the initial education and evaluation, but most care after surgery is delivered by an inpatient medical team and bedside nursing staff who are not as familiar with the donor and concepts related to donor advocacy. In an effort to improve the overall donor experience and provide safe, high-quality care to patients undergoing elective partial hepatectomy, our academic medical center began a quality improvement project focused on improving the inpatient stay. Inpatient nursing standards and policies and procedures were developed to ensure that consistent care is delivered. However, the infrequency of living donor liver transplantation makes it nearly impossible to have all transplant program staff on a nursing unit be "experts" on donor care. Therefore, our center determined that, similar to the Independent Donor Advocacy Team, a transplant program needs live donor champions on the nursing unit to mirror the goals of the team. To that end, we developed the concept of the Designated Donor Nurse to care for and advocate for live liver donors during the inpatient stay and also to serve as a resource to their colleagues.     

Living donor and kidney transplantation

The medical, immunological and surgical histories of the transplantation of kidneys from a living donor have been developed differently. Living kidney transplantation involves better organ quality and also better kidney function than postmortem kidney transplantation. In Germany, living kidney transplantation is legally based on the transplantation statute of 1997. Traditionally, retroperitoneoscopic open nephrectomy is the gold standard used by most transplantation centers in Germany. The laparoscopic hand-assisted nephrectomy is a very good alternative to other surgical methods, but must be applied by experience surgeons. Digital subtraction angiography gives the best information on the maintenance of the vessels of the kidney, the vessels to the upper or lower poles and the retrocaval course of the venous vessels. The rate of postoperative complications for transplantation from a living kidney donor is lower than that for postmortem kidney transplantation. The formation of a donor organ registry can be very helpful in the evaluation and handling of information on organ donation.     

Living-related liver transplantation: Report of experiences at Shinshu University Hospital

In view of the relative scarcity of pediatric cadaveric donors, living-related liver transplantation has recently been accepted as an alternative approach. It is also the only method of liver transplantation available in countries where cadaveric organ procurement is prohibited. Here we describe our experience of living-related liver transplantation in 17 patients at Shinshu University Hospital. The safety of the donor operation is of paramount importance in this type of liver transplantation. In Japan, retransplantation is very difficult in the event of the liver graft becoming nonfunctional. We have therefore placed emphasis on the donor hepatectomy technique as well as on surgical procedures and postoperative care to prevent graft loss in the recipient. Fifteen of the 17 patients who received liver transplants are currently alive; and 1 died of cytomegalovirus infection, and 1 of pulmonary complications. The actuarial 1-year survival rate for our series, determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis, was 89.5%. Although living-related liver transplantation requires a complicated surgical procedure, it has achieved reasonable results for both donors and recipients. We consider that living-related liver transplantation is a useful and reasonable option for patients requiring liver transplantation. This work was supported in part by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan (03404037, 04557056).     

Lebendspende-Lebertransplantation beim Erwachsenen

The worldwide shortage of adequate donor organs implies that living donor liver transplantation represents a valuable alternative to cadaveric transplantation. In addition to the complex surgical procedure the correct identification of eligible donors and recipients plays a decisive role in living donor liver transplantation. Donor safety must be of ultimate priority and overrules all other aspects involved. In contrast to the slightly receding numbers in Europe and North America, in recent years Asian programs have enjoyed constantly increasing living donor activity. The experience of the past 15 years has clearly demonstrated that technical challenges of both bile duct anastomosis and venous outflow of the graft significantly influence postoperative outcome. While short-term in-hospital morbidity remains increased compared to cadaveric transplantation, long-term survival of both graft and patient are comparable or even better than in deceased donor transplantation. Especially for patients expecting long waiting times under the MELD allocation system, living donor liver transplantation offers an excellent therapeutic alternative. Expanding the so-called ?Milan criteria“ for HCC patients with the option for living donor liver transplantation is currently being controversially debated.     

Strategy for the treatment of unresectable hepatoblastoma: neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by delayed primary operation or liver transplantation

We present our experience in using neoadjuvant regional and systemic chemotherapy together with surgical resection as a strategy for the treatment of unresectable hepatoblastoma. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was given prior to surgical treatment in six children with unresectable hepatoblastoma. Furthermore, the neoadjuvant chemotherapy was intensified according to response to the initial treatment. Surgical resection was performed when the tumor was judged to be resectable. The adjuvant chemotherapy was given after delayed primary operation. Five of six children receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy responded to the treatment and subsequently received delayed primary operation or living donor liver transplantation. All five children who had successful surgery have completed treatment and show no evidence of disease to date (27-115 months after surgery). It is concluded that neoadjuvant chemotherapy given as a combination of regional and systemic chemotherapy was effective for tumor reduction in cases with early stage or stage III disease. Also, to increase the cure rate of children with localized disease that was still unresectable after chemotherapy, living donor liver transplantation, which offers some advantage in timing of transplant compared with cadaveric liver transplantation, seems to be a possible procedure.     

Surgical anatomy of segmental liver transplantation

BACKGROUND: The emergence of split and living donor liver transplantation has necessitated re-evaluation of liver anatomy in greater depth and from a different perspective than before. Early attempts at split liver transplantation were met with significant numbers of vascular and biliary complications. Technical innovations in this field have evolved largely by recognizing anatomical anomalies and variations at operation, and devising novel ways of dealing with them. This has led to increasing acceptance of these procedures and decreased morbidity and mortality rates, similar to those observed with whole liver transplantation. METHODS AND RESULTS: The following review is based on clinical experience of more than 180 split and living related liver transplantations in adults and children, performed over a 7-year period from 1994 to 2001. CONCLUSION: A comprehensive understanding and application of surgical anatomy of the liver is essential to improve and maintain the excellent results of segmental liver transplantation.     

成人间双供体活体肝脏移植成功2例报告

目的供肝短缺是影响肝脏移植发展的主要因素之一，活体供肝是解决这一矛盾的重要措施，供者提供足够的肝脏是影响活体肝脏移植的重要因素。方法施行成人间双供体活体肝移植2例，1例由受者的两位姐姐分别提供左半肝作为供肝，另1例由受者母亲提供右半肝，由无心跳供者提供左半肝(采用劈裂方式，其另一部分肝脏同时为另一成人受者实施肝脏移植)作为供肝。结果术后供、受者肝功能均恢复良好。结论成人问双供肝活体肝脏移植可以为受者提供更大重量的肝脏，又可减少供者提供较多肝脏所带来的风险；双供肝一受者肝脏移植手术操作复杂。     

How Different Conceptions of Risk Are Used in the Organ Market Debate

The success of kidney and liver transplantation is hindered by a shortage of organs available for transplantation. Although currently illegal in nearly all parts of the world, a living ‘donor’ or ‘vendor’ kidney market has been proposed as a means to reduce or even end this shortage. Physician members of the American Society of Transplantation, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease were surveyed regarding organ markets for both living kidney and living liver transplantation. The survey queried respondents about their attitudes toward directed living donation, nondirected living donation, the potential legalization of living donor organ markets and the reasons for their support or opposition to organ markets. Partial or completed surveys were returned by 346 of 697 eligible respondents (50%). While virtually all supported or strongly supported directed living donation (98% and 95% for kidney and liver lobes, respectively), the vast majority disagreed or strongly disagreed with the legalization of living donor organ markets (80% for kidneys and 90% for liver lobes). Both those who support and those who oppose a legalized living donor organ market rate risk to the donor among the most important factors to justify their position.     

Living donor liver transplantation--adult donor outcomes: a systematic review.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation, specifically donor outcomes. A systematic review, with searches of the literature up to January 2004, was undertaken. Two hundred and fourteen studies provided information on donor outcomes. The majority of these were case series studies, although there were also studies comparing living donor liver transplantation with deceased donor liver transplantation. Both underreporting and duplicate reporting is likely to have occurred, and so caution is required in interpretation of these results. Overall reported donor mortality was 12 to 13 in about 6,000 procedures (0.2%) (117 studies). Mortality for right lobe donors to adult recipients is estimated to be 2 to 8 out of 3,800 (0.23 to 0.5%). The donor morbidity rate ranged from 0% to 100% with a median of 16% (131 studies). Biliary complications and infections were the most commonly reported donor morbidities. Nearly all donors had returned to normal function by 3 to 6 months (18 studies). In conclusion, there are small, but real, risks for living liver donors. Due to the short history of adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation, the long-term risks for donors are unknown.     

Liver transplantation. The Hannover experience]

Since 1972, 610 liver transplantations have been performed in 520 patients in Hannover, including 98 children from the age of 9 months. In 146 cases, the indications were nonresectable malignant tumors, in 274 cases benign diseases, mainly terminal cirrhoses of various etiologies. The results have been considerably improved, with the recipient's general condition being the key factor of the prognosis: in elective transplantations, the survival rate after one year is 90%, while in complicated or emergent cases, it is only 40-60%. Thus early surgery plays an essential part. The quality of life following liver transplantation is quite satisfactory, and the patients are very happy as a rule. Recurrence of the initial disease reduces the quality of life. Recurrence of malignant tumors, in particular, is frequent. Considerable progress was made in the surgical technique, including transplantation of a reduced liver in children, division of a donor liver in 2 parts, hepatectomy and maintenance of the liver-deprived condition during several hours to achieve the stabilization of hemodynamics, transplantation of auxiliary livers and finally, liver surgery off-site. Thus the accumulation of many elements of experience in liver transplantation has allowed developing new surgical techniques. Like for any organ transplantation, the ethical and economical issues must be constantly kept in mind.     

One living donor and two donations: sequential kidney and liver donation with 20-years interval

The shortage of cadaveric donor organs remains the critical factor limiting the use of organ transplantation. In this environment of organ shortage, living donor transplantation has emerged as a reasonable therapeutic alternative. Simultaneous kidney-liver transplantation from the same donor has been described. We report a case of right liver lobe transplant from a living donor who had donated his kidney to the same recipient 20 years prior.