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Discrepancy between estimated and actual weight of partial liver graft from living donors

  • Original article
  • Published:
Journal of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Sciences

Abstract

Background/purpose

A discrepancy between the actually obtained graft weight and the preoperative volumetric estimation is often observed in living donor liver transplantation. The aim of the study reported here was to clarify the prevalence and degree of this discrepancy between estimated and actual liver volume.

Materials and methods

Preoperative volumetric evaluations of 26 live donor livers were performed using three-dimensional computed tomography software. The weight of the liver graft and blood contained in the graft were measured immediately after procurement and compared with the preoperative estimate. The graft was also weighed after perfusion and after back-table procedures.

Results

Analysis of the results revealed that blood-free graft weight was significantly overestimated (p = 0.02) and blood weight was significantly underestimated (p < 0.001). The sum of the weight of the graft and blood best corresponded to the preoperative volume estimate (R 2 = 0.64, p < 0.001). The back-table procedures significantly decreased the weight of the liver graft (p < 0.001). Graft weight after perfusion and after venous reconstruction corresponded to 95 and 90% of the weight obtained before perfusion, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that donor age had the most significant influence on the ratio of the weight decrease in the University of Wisconsin solution (p = 0.03).

Conclusions

The weight of liver grafts decreases significantly during back-table procedures. Underestimation of the blood weight contained in the graft is one cause of the graft weight discrepancy, but weight loss while the graft was immersed in the University of Wisconsin solution was also observed. These phenomena should be taken into account when graft size is being determined.

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Abbreviations

CT:

Computed tomography

3D:

Three-dimensional

LDLT:

Living donor liver transplantation

UW:

University of Wisconsin

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant-in-aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

    Shouichi Satou, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Sumihito Tamura, Junichi Kaneko, Taku Aoki, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Yoshifumi Beck & Norihiro Kokudo

  2. Organ Transplantation Service, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

    Noriyo Yamashiki

  3. Department of Surgery, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, 4-1-22 Hiro-o, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-8935, Japan

    Masatoshi Makuuchi

Authors
  1. Shouichi Satou
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  2. Yasuhiko Sugawara
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  3. Sumihito Tamura
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  4. Noriyo Yamashiki
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  5. Junichi Kaneko
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  6. Taku Aoki
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  7. Kiyoshi Hasegawa
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  8. Yoshifumi Beck
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  9. Masatoshi Makuuchi
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  10. Norihiro Kokudo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yasuhiko Sugawara.

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Satou, S., Sugawara, Y., Tamura, S. et al. Discrepancy between estimated and actual weight of partial liver graft from living donors. J Hepatobiliary Pancreat Sci 18, 586–591 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00534-011-0374-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00534-011-0374-9

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