Orthotopic transplantation of partially hepatectomized liver in the pig.

One of the major technical obstacles to liver transplantation in children is to find a liver of appropriate size because of the rarity of child donors. To overcome this difficulty an experimental study was carried out using only a portion of the donor liver (right liver) transplanted orthotopically in pigs. A group of 15 allotransplants were performed. A left hepatectomy of the liver graft was performed ex situ and the right liver amounted to 55% of the whole liver. A total of 13 animals survived for more than 5 days (5 to 30 days, with an average of 16). Upon killing, the liver weight was considerably more than that of the part transplanted. The absence of technical complications suggests that this procedure is safe and feasible.