Living Donor Liver Transplantation for Patients with Pre-existent Portal Vein Thrombosis

Background: Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) in living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is a surgical challenge with technical difficulty. The aim of this study was to analyze the operative planning for management of PVT in LDLT and the impact of PVT on the outcome in comparison to patients without PVT. Methods: Between July 2003 to August 2016, 213 patients underwent LDLT. The patients were divided into two groups with and without PVT. The preoperative, operative, and postoperative data were analysed. Results: Thirty six patients (16.9%) had different grades of PVT at time of liver transplantation (LT); grades I, II, III and IV were 18 (50%), 14 (38.9%), 3 (8.3%) and 1 patient (2.8%) respectively. The management of PVT was by; thrombectomy in 31 patients (86%), bypass graft in 2 patients (5.6%), portal replacement graft in 1 patient (2.8%), anastomosis with the left renal vein in 1 patient (2.8%) and with large collateral vein in 1 patient (2.8%). Overall postoperative PVT occurred in 10 patients (4.7%), 4 patients of them had preoperative PVT. The perioperative mortality in patients with PVT, and patients without PVT was 33.3%, and 20.3%, respectively (P=0.17). The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7y survival in patients with PVT was 49.7%, 46.2%, 46.2%, 46.2% respectively and in patients without PVT it was 65%, 53.7%, 50.8%, 49% respectively (P=0.29). Conclusions: Preoperative PVT may not keep a patient from undergoing successful LT with comparable outcome to patients without PVT specially with partial PVT.