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Paediatric liver transplantation: the surgical view

Liver Transplant Surgery, Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College Hospital, London, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr N D Heaton
Liver Transplant Surgery, Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK; carol.grimwood{at}kingshc.nhs.uk

Liver transplantation is the accepted treatment for a wide variety of liver diseases in children. Over the past 10 years a number of innovative surgical techniques have been developed to overcome the shortage of size matched donors particularly in children less than 5 years of age. Graft and patient survival at one year after liver transplantation has continued to improve, and is now over 85% and higher for good risk cases. Complications are relatively common, but provided graft function is satisfactory, long term survival for these children is to be expected. The need for retransplantation has fallen significantly. Causes of early mortality include graft dysfunction and sepsis. Late mortality is due to sepsis, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, and non-compliance. Long term survival with good graft function and excellent quality of life is possible for the majority of children undergoing liver transplantation.

Abbreviations: AST, aspartate aminotransferase; CMV, cytomegalovirus; INR, international normalised ratio; PVT, portal vein thrombosis

Keywords: liver transplantation; paediatric liver disease; surgical complications