Liver transplantation in infants and children.

Orthotopic liver transplantation has become an accepted form of therapy for advanced liver disease. Over a 44-month period, we performed 27 liver transplants in 25 pediatric recipients, including 14 infants (mean age, 7.2 months; mean weight, 5.9 kg) and 11 children (mean age, 9.0 years; mean weight, 34.8 kg). Indications for transplantation were biliary atresia (16), tyrosinemia (3), chronic hepatitis with cirrhosis (2), fulminant hepatic failure (2), and one patient each with Wilson's disease and primary hepatoma. Eighteen patients (72%) had undergone a previous laparotomy, including 19 Kasai procedures in 13 patients with biliary atresia. The average time on the waiting list was 26.8 days (range, 1 to 60), and no patients died while awaiting transplantation. Mean preservation time was 6.9 hours (range, 2 to 13.5), employing cold storage with Collin's solution (16), or more recently, UW solution (11). Urgent liver transplantation was performed in seven cases (25.9%), although at present, we perform liver transplantation as a scheduled semielective procedure with extended preservation times in stable patients. The recipient hepatectomy and orthotopic liver transplantation were performed by standard techniques, with venous bypass used in three cases. Biliary reconstruction was performed with a Roux limb in 16 and via choledochocholedochostomy in ten cases, while arterial reconstruction was end-to-end hepatic artery in 21, and aorto-aortic anastomosis in the remaining six. Two hepatic artery thromboses (7.4%) and two biliary complications (7.4%) occurred.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)