New therapeutic options for obesity include restrictive bowel surgery and surgery that promotes malabsorption, such as the Fobi-Capella (gastric bypass) and Scopinaro (biliopancreatic diversion) techniques. Complications associated with these procedures, such as hepatocellular failure, have been observed with increasing frequency. Reported here are 3 patients who, 7 to 24 months after bariatric surgery, developed hepatocellular failure, for which liver transplantation was considered to be indicated. Liver transplantation was undertaken in 2 of the patients; the third patient died while waiting for this procedure. We discuss the possible causes of this uncommon and poorly understood complication of surgery for obesity. One possibility is that it might arise as a result of progression of steatohepatitis. An alternative concept is that this complication may be secondary to rapid, massive loss of body weight. Liver Transpl 14: 881-885, 2008.

These results indicate that videolaparoscopic cholecystectomy may be safely performed in public hospitals in Brazil, with low levels of complications, no associated mortality, and no need for blood derivatives.

The inclusion of the MHV does not add morbidity in living donors in selected cases.

The prevalence of GB virus C (GBV-C) in candidate Brazilian blood donors with normal and elevated alanine aminotransferase levels was found to be 5.2% (5 of 95) and 6.5% (5 of 76), respectively. Among Brazilian patients, GBV-C was found in 9.5% (13 of 137) of cases of hepatitis not caused by hepatitis A virus (HAV), HBV, HCV, HDV, or HEV (non-A-E hepatitis) and in 18.2% (8 of 44) of individuals infected with HCV. Molecular characterization of GBV-C by partial sequencing of the NS3 region showed clustering between members of a single family, implying intrafamilial transmission. In conclusion, these results together suggest that contagion mechanisms which facilitate intrafamilial transmission of GBV-C may partially explain the high prevalence of viremic carriers worldwide.

EDITORIALRecebi um e-mail no dia 8 de janeiro de 2013, do meu irmão Ricardo Viebig, Editor Chefe dos Arquivos de Gastroenterologia, nossa revista que está completando 50 anos de idade neste ano. Era um fim de tarde e ele me pediu que escrevesse uma página, uma memória viva a ser publicada no número comemorativo dessa data. Representa esse um evento raro em nosso país. Confesso que a emoção tomou conta de mim, ele não viu, mas lágrimas vieram aos meus olhos. Encontrava-me junto a Denise, minha mulher que tem caminhado comigo nesse longo trajeto. Ela inquietou-se quando lhe comuniquei o conteúdo de e-mail recebido, no momento em que digitava um capítulo do meu novo livro a ser publicado "Carcinoma Hepatocelular no Cirrótico. Da Hepatocarcinogênese ao Transplante de Fígado". Imediatamente procurei me lembrar o que escrevera um dos nossos escritores maiores Raduan Nassar no seu livro lapidar "Lavoura Arcai ca": "Os homens que não se rebelam contra o curso da corrente do tempo, não recebeu suas iras, mas seus favores". A partir desse pensamento, mesmo reconhecendo que não seria merecedor dessa honraria, resolvi aceitá-la. Retornei, então, no tempo, voltando imediatamente ao Recife, ano de 1966, quando era estudante de Medicina na Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Nessa época meu mentor era o Prof. Djalma Vasconcelos, referência na especialidade no Brasil. Consultei-o, indagando para onde deveria me dirigir visando especialização em gastroenterologia. Não titubeou e disse para me dirigir ao IBEPEGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Estudos e Pesquisas em Gastroenterologia), em São Paulo. Submeti-me ao Concurso de Admissão e fui aprovado. Passei, então, a conviver com os melhores especialistas nessa área da medicina. Figurava entre esses os Profs. José Fernandes Pontes, Luiz Caetano

The bile duct anatomic variations are frequent, and the magnetic resonance cholangiography showed moderate accuracy (70%) in reproducing the surgical findings; the computed tomography reproduced the intraoperative findings of the hepatic artery in 100% of donors, and of the portal vein in 89.4% of the cases, thus demonstrating high accuracy (89%).

No abstract

The weight of the right liver lobe graft in a living-donor transplantation is less than that calculated by preoperative computed tomography, and the inclusion of the middle hepatic vein in the right liver lobe graft resulted in a statistically significant decrease in this difference.