Auxiliary living donor liver transplantation combined with two-stage hepatectomy for unresectable colorectal liver metastases.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE OF REVIEW To review the role of liver transplantation for unresectable colorectal liver metastases (u-CRLM) and to describe the intial experience with auxiliary living donor liver transplantation combined with two-stage hepatectomy for u-CRLM (i.e. living donor RAPID). RECENT FINDINGS: Patients affected with u-CRLM have a poor prognosis with 5 years overall survival (OS) rate less than 10% under standard modern chemotherapy.There is an actual international consensus that liver transplantation for u-CRLM represents a viable option in highly selected patients with OS rate at 5 years up to 80% notwithstanding high recurrence rates. Due to the scarcity of whole liver graft from deceased donors, the RAPID procedure (i.e. resection and partial liver segment 2-3 transplantation from deceased donors with delayed total hepatectomy) has been introduced as possible alternative. The RAPID procedure represents the most actual and modern fusion of the two most challenging procedures of modern hepatobiliary and liver transplant surgery that is auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation and associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy. Although the deceased donor-RAPID procedure may show promising results, the basic problem of scarcity of organs from deceased donors and mainly the lack of splittable organs still remains. SUMMARY: The living donor RAPID, based on transplantation of left lateral segments from living donor, may represent the way out to this problem. It is feasible and safe (for both donor and recipient), but characterized by a very challenging high-end transplantological procedure.