ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of individualized treatment of splenorenal shunt during liver transplantation. Methods Clinical data of 2 recipients who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation and splenorenal shunt intraoperatively were retrospectively analyzed. According to the perfusion status after splenorenal shunt and donor liver reflow, the left renal vein ligation and splenorenal shunt vessel ligation were performed in two recipients during liver transplantation. The general postoperative conditions of the recipients were observed, including surgical related complications, peak portal blood flow velocity, liver and renal function indexs. The postoperative conditions of the recipients were monitored by abdominal ultrasound. Results No intraoperative or postoperative complications occurred in two recipients. The changes of peak portal blood flow velocity before and after splenorenal shunt in two recipients were 22.9-35.1 cm/s and 24.3-58.8 cm/s respectively. No delayed recovery of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was observed in two patients after operation. Case 1 experienced a transient increase in the serum creatinine (Scr), which was recovered to normal at postoperative 13 d. During the postoperative follow-up, ultrasound examination demonstrated that the direction and velocity of portal blood flow were normal and liver perfusion was excellent. Conclusions It is safe and effective to selectively ligate the left renal vein or splenorenal shunt vessels of the recipients with severe splenorenal shunt during liver transplantation.
ABSTRACT
During living donor liver transplantation, a large spontaneous splenorenal shunt (SRS) should be addressed to obtain adequate portal inflow. Various procedures such as direct ligation of the SRS, splenectomy, left renal vein ligation (LRVL), and renoportal anastomosis can be applied to treat a large SRS according to the hemodynamics of the portal flow and anatomic conditions. Of these surgical procedures, LRVL is a simple and effective solution for treatment of a large SRS. However, to perform a LRVL, rigorous evaluation of the recipient's anatomic and hemodynamic variations is mandatory. In the present case, we ligated the left renal vein to treat a large SRS, which resulted in an unexpected thrombosis of the left renal vein and remaining portal vein stenosis in the SRS. Therefore, we revised our decisions regarding whether the LRVL was properly applied.