Adult-to-adult living-donor liver transplantation: The experience of the Universite catholique de Louvain

Background: Liver transplantation is the treatment for end-stage liver diseases and well-selected malignancies. The allograft shortage may be alleviated with living donation. The initial UCLouvain experience of adult living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is presented. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 64 adult-to-adult LDLTs performed at our institution between 1998 and 2016 was conducted. The median age of 29 (45.3%) females and 35 (54.7%) males was 50.2 years (in-terquartile range, IQR 32.9-57.5). Twenty-two (34.4%) recipients had no portal hypertension. Three (4.7%) patients had a benign and 33 (51.6%) a malignant tumor [19 (29.7%) hepatocellular cancer, 11 (17.2%) secondary cancer and one (1.6%) each hemangioendothelioma, hepatoblastoma and embryonal liver sarcoma]. Median donor and recipient follow-ups were 93 months (IQR 41-159) and 39 months (22-91), respectively. Results: Right and left hemi-livers were implanted in 39 (60.9%) and 25 (39.1%) cases, respectively. Median weights of right-and left-liver were 810 g (IQR 730-940) and 454 g (IQR 394-534), respectively. Graft-to-recipient weight ratios (GRWRs) were 1.17% (right, IQR 0.98%-1.4%) and 0.77% (left, 0.59%-0.95%). One-and five-year patient survivals were 85% and 71% (right) vs. 84% and 58% (left), respectively. Oneand five-year graft survivals were 74% and 61% (right) vs. 76% and 53% (left), respectively. The patient and graft survival of right and left grafts and of very small (< 0.6%), small (0.6%-0.79%) and large (>= 0.8%) GRWR were similar. Survival of very small grafts was 86% and 86% at 3- and 12-month. No donor died while five (7.8%) developed a Clavien-Dindo complication IIIa, IIIb or IV. Recipient morbidity consisted mainly of biliary and vascular complications; three (4.7%) recipients developed a small-for-size syndrome according to the Kyushu criteria. Conclusions: Adult-to-adult LDLT is a demanding procedure that widens therapeutic possibilities of many hepatobiliary diseases. The donor procedure can be done safely with low morbidity. The recipient operation carries a major morbidity indicating an important learning curve. Shifting the risk from the donor to the recipient, by moving from the larger right-liver to the smaller left-liver grafts, should be further explored as this policy makes donor hepatectomy safer and may stimulate the development of transplant oncology. (C) 2019 First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine in China. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.