Living donor liver transplantation: Eastern experiences (original) (raw)

Background The techniques of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) developed rapidly in the 1990s to compensate for a severe de®ciency in the availability of liver grafts from cadaveric donors for the treatment of patients with end-stage liver disease. This tendency was particularly prominent in East Asia, as brain-death donors have remained largely unavailable for a variety of reasons. Thanks to re®nements in surgical technique and postoperative management for LDLT, the cumulative total of LDLTs in East Asian countries has exceeded 2000 and, importantly, donor mortality has yet to be encountered. Moreover, indications for LDLT have been successfully expanded from paediatric to adult cases, following the introduction of right lobe graft. The signi®cance of LDLT under conditions of limited opportunities for cadaveric liver transplantation, as experienced in these countries, differs signi®cantly from that seen with the numerous opportunities for cadaveric donors in Europe and the USA. This review describes not only the experiences of East Asia, but also the speci®c differences from Western countries, such as indications, graft size issues and ABO blood type combinations, to shed light on the future of liver transplantation.