Variability Of The Extrahepatic Arterial Anatomy In 500 Hepatic Grafts

Purpose. To review the extrahepatic arterial anatomy in 500 consecutive liver grafts.Materials and methods. From April 1990 to January 2005 we performed 500 liver transplantations. We received 108 deceased donor liver grafts (21.4%) from other centers. Donor arterial anatomy was recorded as described in the surgical notes of both the donor harvest and the recipient procedures. We used the modified Michels classification scheme proposed by Busuttil. We assessed incidencess of mortality, retransplantation, postreperfusion syndrome, intraoperative arrest, hemorrhagic complications, and primary malfunction, comparing with chi-squared tests.Results. There were 376 type I (75.2%), 51 type II (10.2%), 32 type III (6.4%), 18 type IV (3.6%), 3 type V (0.6%), 2 type VI (0.4%) and 18 others (3.6%). No significant associations were found between arterial vascular anomalies of the graft and the studied variables.Conclusion. In our experience, extrahepatic arterial anomalies of the donor graft did not influence the short-term outcomes of liver transplantation.