Biliary complications after living donor liver transplantation: A retrospective analysis of the Kyoto experience 1999-2004.

BACKGROUND AND AIM

In living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), biliary complications continue to be the most frequent cause of morbidity and may contribute to mortality of recipients although there are advances in surgical techniques. This study will evaluate retrospectively the short-term and long-term management of biliary complications.

METHODS

During the period from May 1999, to May 2004, 505 patients underwent 518 LDLT in the Department of Liver Transplantation and Immunology, Kyoto University Hospital, Japan. The data was collected and analyzed retrospectively.

RESULTS

The recipients were 261 males (50.4%) and 257 females (49.6%). Biliary complications were reported in 202/518 patients (39.0%), included; biliary leakage in 79/518 (15.4%) patients, leakage followed by biloma in 13/518 (2.5%) patients, leakage followed by stricture in 9/518 (1.8%) patients, and biliary strictures in 101/518 (19.3%) patients. Proper management of the biliary complications resulted in a significant (p value 0.002) success rate of 96.5% compared to the failure rate which was 3.5%.

CONCLUSION

Careful preoperative evaluation and the proper intraoperative techniques in biliary reconstruction decrease biliary complications. Early diagnosis and proper management of biliary complications can decrease their effect on both the patient and the graft survival over the long period of follow up.