Novel Anastomotic Technique for Uterine Transplant Using Utero-ovarian Veins for Venous Drainage and Internal Iliac Arteries for Perfusion in Two Laparoscopically Harvested Uteri

Study Objective

To evaluate 2 cases of uterine transplant surgery that used utero-ovarian veins as outflow channels, internal iliac arteries for perfusion, and the organ harvest surgery performed laparoscopically.

Design

Case study (Canadian Task Force Classification III).

Setting

An urban, private, tertiary care hospital.

Patients

Two patients, ages 30 and 24years, diagnosed with absolute uterine factor infertility secondary to Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome underwent related living donor uterine transplants; donors were their mothers with normal menses.

Interventions

Retrieval of organs through minilaparotomy and laparoscopic harvest of donor internal iliac arteries and ovarian veins.

Measurements and Main Results

Anastomosis was completed with bilateral donor internal iliac arteries to recipient internal iliac arteries in an end-to-end manner and with bilateral donor ovarian veins to recipient external iliac veins in an end-to-side manner. The lengths of utero-ovarian veins of both donors were 11 and 11cm on both sides; the lengths of the internal iliac arteries of both donors were 10 and 7.5cm on the left side and 10 and 6cm on the right side. The operative times for harvest surgery, bench surgery and transplant surgery were 2:40 and 3:20 hours, 34:32 and 33:30 min and 4:00 and 4:30 hours respectively for recipients 1 and 2. Daily postoperative uterine Doppler was completed through day 8 and then every other day and showed good intrauterine blood flow (i.e., low resistance arcuate vessel flow; resistance index < .5). Cervical biopsies on postoperative days 7 and 14 showed no evidence of rejection in either recipient. Both recipients started menstruating within 2 months of surgery.

Conclusion

By using ovarian veins as outflow channels, the challenges involved in dissection along the internal iliac vein are avoided, and harvesting the donor internal iliac artery reduces the tension on vascular anastomosis. The selection of vessels to be harvested could make the technique reproducible, although larger studies are warranted to confirm results.