Orthotopic liver transplantation for giant liver haemangioma: A case report

In liver haemangiomas, the risk of complication rises with increasing size, and treatment can be obligatory. Here we present a case of a 46-year-old female who suffered from a giant haemangioma causing severe portal hypertension and vena cava compression, leading to therapy refractory ascites, hyponatremia and venostasis-associated thrombosis with pulmonary embolism. The patients did not experience tumour rupture or consumptive coagulopathy. Surgical resection was impossible because of steatosis of the non-affected liver. Orthotopic liver transplantation was identified as the only treatment option. The patient's renal function remained stable even though progressive morbidity and organ allocation were improbable according to the patient's lab model for end-stage liver disease(lab MELD) score. Therefore, non-standard exception status was approved by the European organ allocation network "Eurotransplant". The patient underwent successful orthotopic liver transplantation 16 mo after admission to our centre. Our case report indicates the underrepresentation of morbidity associated with refractory ascites in the lab MELD-based transplant allocation system, and it indicates the necessity of promptly applying for non-standard exception status to enable transplantation in patients with a severe clinical condition but low lab MELD score. Our case highlights the fact that liver transplantation should be considered early in patients with non-resectable, symptomatic benign liver tumours.

Intraoperative reperfusion assessment of human pancreas allografts using hyperspectral imaging(HSI)

Background:The most common causes of early graft loss in pancreas transplantation are insufficient blood supply and leakage of the intestinal anastomosis.Therefore,it is critical to monitor graft perfusion and oxygenation during the early post-transplant period.The goal of our pilot study was to evaluate the utility of hyperspectral imaging(HSI)in monitoring the microcirculation of the graft and adequate perfusion of the intestinal anastomosis during pancreatic allotransplantation.Methods:We imaged pancreatic grafts and intestinal anastomosis in real-time in three consecutive,simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantations using the TIVITA®HSI system.Further,the intraoperative oxygen saturation(StO_(2)),tissue perfusion(near-infrared perfusion index,NIR),organ hemoglobin index(OHI),and tissue water index(TWI)were measured 15 minutes after reperfusion by HSI.Results:All pancreas grafts showed a high and homogeneous StO_(2)(92.6%±10.45%).Intraoperative HSI analysis of the intestinal anastomosis displayed significant differences of StO_(2)(graft duodenum 67.46%±5.60%vs.recipient jejunum:75.93%±4.71%,P<0.001)and TWI{graft duodenum:0.63±0.09[I(Index)]vs.recipient jejunum:0.72±0.09[I],P<0.001}.NIR and OHI did not display remarkable differences{NIR duodenum:0.68±0.06[I]vs.NIR jejunum:0.69±0.04[I],P=0.747;OHI duodenum:0.70±0.12[I]vs.OHI jejunum:0.68±0.13[I],P=0.449}.All 3 patients had an uneventful postoperative course with one displaying a Banff 1a rejection which was responsive to steroid treatment.Conclusions:Our study shows that contact-free HSI has potential utility as a novel tool for real-time monitoring of human pancreatic grafts after reperfusion,which could improve the outcome of pancreas transplantation.Further investigations are required to determine the predictive value of intraoperative HSI imaging.