Anesthetic considerations for living donor for liver transplantation

Abstract

Background:Liver transplantation started at Colorado university in 1963. After many years of experience and knowledge in the field of liver surgeries, Chicago University allowed to do the first attempt of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) in 1989. A mother donated her left lobe of the liver to her to her daughter that born with biliary atresia. The use of LDLT has increased, as an alternative to cadaveric transplantation due to wait list exceeds the cadaveric availability. LDLT has the advantage of minimizing cold ischemic time to 1 h or less as compared to the four up to 12 h of cold ischemic time with deceased donor transplantation with lower inflammatory markers that improving graft survival. The main goal of LDLT is protection of the donor from unacceptable risk and minimize post-operative morbidity and mortality; therefore, the potential liver donor is must be thoroughly investigated and screened enough to optimize the safety of the procedure