PubMed1977
The authors report the clinical and laboratory results of 65 orthotopic allotransplantations of the liver in the pig. The operative mortality (8 cases) was nil in the last 23 transplantations. Vascular filling without blood transfusion, blood alkalinisation and precautions to avoid hypothermia, seem essential to reduce early mortality. The various causes of secondary mortality are studied, using certain preventive measures. Thus, deaths due to gallbladder or hepatic ischemia have become rare by conserving end-to-end anastomosis on the hepatic artery and taking certain precautions. The grafts were rejected only in incompatible pigs in the SLA system, but were not rare in this group (13/43) and sufficient to cause death in one case out of two. Gastric ulcers were frequent, even after vagotomy, but vagotomy protects fairly well against ulcer hemorrhage. However, ulcers almost always accompany a disease which is alone sufficient to cause death. Cholangitis appears less frequent after cholecysto-jejunal anastomosis on an excluded omega loop. The mortality from extra-hepatic causes was severe (12 cases), in particular due to mechanical complications at the level of the small intestine. Laboratory analyses showed a definite rise in SGOT transaminase levels and, above all, alkaline prosphatase levels in cases of rejection compared with cases of biliary obstruction or hepatic necrosis.