The impact of donor hepatectomy techniques on postoperative liver regeneration

Objective To study the impact of various donor hepatectomy techniques on clinical rehabilitation and postoperative liver regeneration on living donor liver transplant (LDLT) donors.Methods The data of 13 consecutive LDLT carried out from May 2006 to May 2011,including the surgical techniques,postoperative liver function,and liver regeneration in the donors were retrospectively studied.Results The donor operations included 8 right hepatectomies without the middle hepatic vein,2 right hepatectomies with the middle hepatic vein and 3 left hepatectomies.Hepatic function and blood coagulation function returned to normal within two weeks of hepatectomy in all the donors.There was no severe complication and no death.There was a significant positive correlation between the donor liver volume as measured preoperatively on CT and the resected liver weight as measured intraoperatively (r=0.838,P＜0.01).The volume of the remnant liver increased soon after transplantation.The liver regenerated significantly faster in right than in lefft liver donors.The remnant liver of the right liver donors with middle hepatic vein preservation grew faster than the right liver donors without middle hepatic vein preservation.However,there was no significant difference in the recovery of the liver function between the three groups.Conclusions Donor hepatectomy is safe.The postoperative liver regeneration is affected by multiple factors including the remnant liver volume and blood supply of the remnant liver. Key words: Living donor liver transplantation;  Donor;  Hepatectomy;  Liver regeneration