Rinaldo Bellomo, Bruno Marino, Graham Starkey, Bhao Zhong Wang, Michael A Fink, Nan Zhu, Satoshi Suzuki, Shane Houston, Glenn Eastwood, Paolo Calzavacca, Neil Glassford, Brenton Chambers, Alison Skene, Antoine G Schneider, Daryl Jones, Andrew Hilton, Helen Opdam, Stephen Warrillow, Nicole Gauthier, Lynne Johnson, Robert Jones
Liver transplantation is a major life-saving procedure and donation after cardiac death (DCD) has increased the pool of potential liver donors. However, livers procured after DCD are at increased risk of primary graft dysfunction and biliary tract ischaemia. Normothermic extracorporeal liver perfusion (NELP) may increase the ability to protect, evaluate and, in future, transplant DCD livers. We conducted a proof-of-concept experiment using a human liver procured by DCD (deemed not suitable for liver donation) to assess the short-term (3 hours) feasibility, histological effects and functional efficacy of NELP...
June 2013: Critical Care and Resuscitation: Journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine