Liver—clinical experienceLiver transplantation in Hong Kong—a wider application
Section snippets
Patients and methods
The records of 102 LTx performed in 97 patients (78 adults, 19 children) between October 1991 and June 1999 were reviewed. During this time period, promotion for cadaver organ donation was made through public education programs. Reduced-size LTx and living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) were introduced for pediatric patients in 1993. LDLT was applied to adult recipients using left lobe grafts1 in 1994 and extended right lobe grafts2 in 1996. Emergency transplantation for high urgency
Results
The number of LTx increased rapidly from 16 between 1991 and 1994 to 86 between 1995 and 1999 because of an increase in cadaver and living donor operations. There were 62 cadaver grafts (full-size, 56; reduced-size, 5; split, 1) and 40 grafts from living donors (left lateral segment; 14; extended left lobe, 6; extended right lobe, 20). The proportion of living donor LTx was 30.9% in adults and 71.4% in children. Since 1996, it accounted for 42.5% of the 73 LTx performed. Thirty-one (30.4%) LTx
Discussion
Most newly developed liver transplant programs in Asia would adopt strict selection criteria for recipients. This is particularly important in the presence of severe organ shortage and only carefully selected patients who are most likely to benefit from LTx would be accepted on the list. Patients who required urgent LTx for fulminant hepatic failure or other reasons are usually considered high-risk candidates with poor early results. For patients with HBV-related liver disease or hepatocellular
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(1999) Lancet
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Cited by (3)
Use of Elderly Donors (> 60 Years) for Liver Transplantation
2004, Asian Journal of SurgerySplit-liver transplantation: Future use of scarce donor organs
2002, World Journal of SurgeryPost-transplantation lymphoproliferative disease in Chinese: The Queen Mary Hospital experience in Hong Kong
2002, Leukemia and Lymphoma