Background: Shortage of size-matched pediatric donors led to the development of surgical techniques to reduce or split livers and thus increase the potential pool of donors. Despite this, neonatal transplantation remains a problem because of the small size of the recipients. Further reduction of the left lateral segment is possible to provide a single segment graft (segment III). We report our experience of transplanting 6 babies using this technique.
Methods: Of 310 children transplanted in our center between October 1989 and March 1998, 6 patients, 2 male and 4 female, median age 37.5 days (range 5 to 92 days), median weight 3.45 kg (range 2.45 to 5.46 kg) were transplanted with a monosegment. The cause of liver failure was neonatal hemochromatosis in 4, retransplantation for hepatic artery thrombosis in 1, and hepatitis B in one. The donor liver was reduced or split to a left lateral segment. Segment II was then resected and discarded before transplantation.
Results: Overall, graft and patient survival is 83.3%. Five patients are alive with good graft function at a mean follow-up of 30.4 months (range 8 to 82 months). One child who was transplanted for hepatic artery thrombosis died from sepsis and multiorgan failure 48 hrs after transplant. None of the survivors had vascular or biliary complications.
Conclusions: Monosegment liver transplantation with segment III appears to be a satisfactory option for treating small babies with liver failure.