Short hepatic vein reconstruction in biliary atresia patients with absent inferior vena cava

Abstract

Liver transplantation in patients with biliary atresia and polysplenia syndrome requires some technical adjustments. During eight yr, 75 biliary atresia patients underwent living donor liver transplantation. Of these, two patients were complicated by absent inferior vena cava with azygos continuation. Both patients received hemi-liver grafts with short hepatic veins. Outflow was reconstructed using a cryopreserved vena cava. In both patients, the short hepatic vein was anastomosed to the vein graft end-to-end and the end of the vein graft was anastomosed with the common orifices of recipient's hepatic veins. Both of the patients survived the operation with satisfactory graft function. A hemi-liver graft with short hepatic veins can be used for patients with biliary atresia with inferior vena cava agenesia using the current technique. © 2007 Blackwell Munksgaard.