Reducing the thickness of left lateral segment grafts in neonatal living donor liver transplantation

Abstract

Liver transplantation is now an established treatment for children with end-stage liver disease. Left lateral segment (LLS) grafts are most commonly used in split and living donor liver transplantation in children. In very small children, LLS grafts can be too large, and further nonanatomical reduction has recently been introduced to mitigate the problem of large-for-size grafts. However, the implantation of LLS grafts can be a problem in infants and very small children because of the thickness of the grafts, and these techniques do not address problems related to thickness. We herein describe a technique for reducing the thickness of living donor left lateral grafts and successful transplantation in a 2.8-kg infant with acute liver failure.