Logistics and technique for combined hepatic-intestinal retrieval.

During a 13-month period, en bloc liver-small bowel cadaveric grafts were procured for seven children and one adult. All liver grafts functioned immediately, and all but one of the recipient patients recovered. Return of absorptive small bowel function was slow, but the integrity of the bacterial intestinal barrier was not disrupted. The described technique allows the procurement of other abdominothoracic organs, with the exception of the whole pancreas.