First porto-caval hemitransposition OLT

On Dec 30, 2002, the first porto-caval hemitransposition OLT in China was successfully completed in our center for a patient from Jiangsu Province that suffered from huge liver cancer. Routinely, liver transplant includes the respective anastomosis of portal vein, vena cava, bile duct and hepatic artery between donor and recipient liver. But by photography exam before the operation, the patient's portal vein was found to be filled with thrombosis. For patient with partial portal vein thrombosis, it needs to do bypass between the donor portal vein and recipient superior mesenteric vein. But this patient's portal system was completely filled with thrombosis, bypass was impossible to be made. If the blood supply couldn't be restored for the portal vein, the operation had to be abandoned. The patient could only survive for few months by experience if the suffered liver could not be removed. Professor Zhang and the transplant team doctors put forward the protocol of porto-caval hemitransplantation, that was to anastomose the portal vein of donor liver to the recipient vena cava. But, this operation had never been done in China, and there were only few reports even throughout the world. To save the patient's life, the transplant team got over all the difficulties, and successfully completed the operation first in China. The post-operation course was uneventful, the and patient checked out at the end of 3rd week after the operation. The follow-up time was 6 months till now, the patient was in good condition and had already come back to normal life with his happy family. This indicated that the technique of our center was top-ranking in China in view of complicated liver transplantation.