Long-term Outcome of a Modified Piggyback Liver Transplantation Technique Using the Recipient's Right and Middle Hepatic Veins.

In early piggyback liver transplantation (LT) descriptions, the common stump of the middle and left hepatic veins (ML) was used for upper caval anastomosis. In this variant, stenosis or kinking of graft venous outflow path was frequent. Over time, most authors adopted the use of the recipient’s right, middle, and left hepatic veins (RML) or a side-to-side anastomosis (SS) between the graft’s and recipient’s inferior vena cava (IVC). Nonetheless, partial IVC clamping required in RML and SS can reduce IVC flow. Since 1998, we incorporated a modified piggyback procedure using the recipient’s right and middle hepatic veins (RM) to simultaneously achieve better preservation of IVC flow and a wide and well-positioned anastomosis.