Unique multidisciplinary approach in living donor liver transplantation to achieve total physiological revascularization in a patient with complete occlusion of portal vein system with combined chronic and subacute thrombosis.

Abstract

Patients receiving liver transplantation in a setting of complete portal vein (PV) and superior mesenteric vein (SMV) thrombosis (Yerdel grade 4) experience lower outcomes after surgery; prognosis is independently influenced by the portal flow reconstruction technique, showing better outcomes in physiological surgical strategies. We describe a case of living donor liver transplantation in which the patient could not receive common physiological reconstructions preoperatively due to multiple small collaterals and extensive thrombosis down to first branches of SMV. We performed thromboendovenectomy of the PV and SMV first, but acute thrombosis developed recurrently even with interposition venous homograft between pericholedochal collateral vein and proximal recipient PV. Immediate after surgery, an intervention radiologist performed stent insertion into 3 stenotic points. Through multidisciplinary approach, complete physiological recanalization was obtained with normal liver function.