Liver transplantation in children using organs from young paediatric donors |
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Authors: | Uta Herden Rainer Ganschow Andrea Briem‐Richter Knut Helmke Bjoern Nashan Lutz Fischer |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Visceral Transplantation, University Medical Centre Hamburg‐Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany;2. Department of Paediatric Hepatology and Liver Transplantation, University Medical Centre Hamburg‐Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany;3. Department of Paediatric Radiology, University Medical Centre Hamburg‐Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany |
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Abstract: | Nowadays, most paediatric liver transplant recipients receive a split or other technical variant graft from adult deceased or live donors, because of a lack of available age‐ and size matched paediatric donors. Few data are available, especially for liver grafts obtained from very young children (<6 years). We analysed all paediatric liver transplantations between 1989 and 2009. Recipients were divided into five groups (1–5) depending on donor age (<1, ≥1 to <6, ≥6 to <16, ≥16 to <45, ≥45 years). Overall, 413 paediatric liver transplantations from deceased donors were performed; 1‐ and 5‐year graft survival rates were 75%, 80%, 78%, 81%, 74% and 75%, 64%, 70%, 67%, 46%, and 1‐ and 5‐year patient survival rates were 88%, 91%, 90%, 89%, 78% and 88%, 84%, 84%, 83%, 63% for groups 1–5, respectively, without significant difference. Eight children received organs from donors younger than 1 year and 45 children received organs from donors between 1 and 6 years of age. Overall, vascular complications occurred in 13.2% of patients receiving organs from donors younger than 6 years. Analysis of our data revealed that the usage of liver grafts from donors younger than 6 years is a safe procedure. The outcome was comparable with grafts from older donors with excellent graft and patient survival, even for donors younger than 1 year. |
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Keywords: | liver transplantation paediatric donors |
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