Survival has greatly improved over time as management strategies evolved. The current results clearly justify elevating the procedure level to that of other abdominal organs with the privilege to permanently reside in a respected place in the surgical armamentarium. Meanwhile, innovative tactics are still required to conquer long-term hazards of chronic rejection of liver-free allografts and infection of multivisceral recipients.

Background and aims For patients with end-stage liver disease commonly used indices of nutritional status (i.e. body weight and BMI) are often inflated due to fluid overload (i.e. ascites, peripheral edema) resulting in an underdiagnosis of malnutrition. As muscle is the largest protein reservoir in the body, an estimate of muscle mass may be a more reliable and valid estimate of nutritional status. Methods Therefore, we used pre-transplant computerized tomography data of 338 liver transplant (LTX) candidates to identify muscle and fat mass based on a specific abdominal transverse section commonly used in body composition analyses and investigated the contribution of this measure to specific post-LTX outcomes. Results We found the majority, 68%, of our patients could be defined as cachetic. For men muscle mass predicted many important post-transplant outcomes including intensive care unit (ICU) and total length of stay and days of intubation. Muscle mass was a significant predictor of survival and also predicted disposition to home vs another facility. For women muscle mass predicted lengths of ICU and total stay and days of intubation but the effect was modest. Muscle mass did not predict survival or disposition for women. Conclusions As pre-transplant muscle mass was associated with many important post-operative outcomes we discuss these findings in the context of possible pre-transplant interventions to either improve or sustain muscle mass before surgery.

Body Mass Index is a commonly used but likely inexact measure of body composition for patients with end-stage liver disease. For this reason, we examined whether body composition measurements from direct visualization on computerized tomography (CT) scans provide new insights both into the degree of malnutrition and also discordant combinations such as obesity with muscle mass loss. This technology is widely used in other medically ill populations but not yet in liver transplantation. Methods We examined actual body composition using abdominal CT scan data and software designed to measure fat and muscle compartments. Results In 234 liver transplant candidates we found BMI was highly and significantly correlated to subcutaneous and visceral fat. However we additionally found that even among obese patients, cachexia, as defined by muscle mass, was common with 56% of those with BMIs over 30 being cachexic. We also found that patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, compared to other types of liver diseases, were significantly more likely to have larger amounts of visceral fat while also having less muscle. In an exploratory analysis muscle mass corrected for height was a significant predictor of post-transplant survival. Conclusions Body composition by CT scan data provides a specific method to identify obesity and muscle wasting for end-stage liver disease patients. Whether these data can aid in the prognostication of outcomes and survival requires further investigation.

Outcomes after LTx for hepatoblastoma may benefit from improved detection and treatment of pretransplantation metastases, adequate tumor lysis after chemotherapy, and perioperative antithrombotic agents but are unaffected by undifferentiated tumor histology.

A tenth of all pediatric liver transplantations (LTs) are performed for unresectable liver malignancies, especially the more common hepatoblastoma (HBL). Less understood are outcomes after LT for the rare hepatocellular carcinoma, nonhepatoblastoma embryonal tumors (EMBs), and slow growing metastatic neuroendocrine tumors of childhood. Pediatric LT is increasingly performed for rare unresectable liver malignancies other than HBL. We performed a retrospective review of outcomes after LT for malignancy in the multicenter US Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR; n = 677; 1987‐2015). We then reviewed the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP; n = 74; 1981‐2014) experience focusing on LT for unresectable hepatocellular cancer (HCC), EMBs, and metastatic liver tumors (METS). HBL was included to provide reference statistics. In the SRTR database, LT for HCC and HBL increased over time (P < 0.001). Compared with other malignancies, the 149 HCC cases received fewer segmental grafts (P < 0.001) and also experienced 10‐year patient survival similar to 15,710 adult HCC LT recipients (51.6% versus 49.6%; P = 0.848, not significant [NS], log‐rank test). For 22 of 149 cases with incidental HCC, 10‐year patient survival was higher than 127 primary HCC cases (85% [95% confidence interval (CI), 70.6%‐100%] versus 48.3% [95% CI, 38%‐61%]; P = 0.168, NS) and similar to 3392 biliary atresia cases (89.9%; 95% CI, 88.7%‐91%). Actuarial 10‐year patient survival for 17 EMBs, 10 METS, and 6 leiomyosarcoma patients exceeded 60%. These survival outcomes were similar to those seen for HBL. At CHP, posttransplant recurrence‐free and overall survival among 25 HCC, 17 (68%) of whom had preexisting liver disease, was 16/25 or 64%, and 9/25 or 36%, respectively. All 10 patients with incidental HCC and tumor‐node‐metastasis stage I and II HCC survived recurrence‐free. Only vascular invasion predicted poor survival in multivariate analysis (P < 0.0001). A total of 4 of 5 EMB patients (80%) and all patients with METS (neuroendocrine‐2, pseudopapillary pancreatic‐1) also survived recurrence‐free. Among children, LT can be curative for unresectable HCC confined to the liver and without vascular invasion, incidental HCC, embryonal tumors, and metastatic neuroendocrine tumors. Liver Transplantation 23 1577–1588 2017 AASLD.

Treatment with inhaled carbon monoxide (CO) has been shown to ameliorate bowel dysmotility caused by surgical manipulation of the gut in experimental animals. We hypothesized that administration of CO dissolved in lactated Ringer's solution (CO-LR) might provide similar protection to that observed with the inhaled gas while obviating some of its inherent problems. Postoperative gut dysmotility (ileus) was induced in mice by surgical manipulation of the small intestine. Some mice were treated with a single intraperitoneal dose of CO-LR immediately after the surgical procedure, whereas other mice received only the LR vehicle. Twenty-four hours later, intestinal transit of a nonabsorbable marker (70-kDa fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran) was delayed in mice subjected to intestinal manipulation but not the sham procedure. Gut manipulation also was associated with increased expression within the muscularis propria of transcripts for interleukin-1␤, cyclooxygenase-2, inducible nitric-oxide synthase, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, and Toll-like receptor-4, as well as infiltration of the muscularis propria with polymorphonuclear leukocytes and activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases and nuclear factor-B. All of these effects were attenuated by treatment with CO-LR. The salutary effect of CO-LR on gut motility, as well as many of the anti-inflammatory effects of CO-LR, was diminished by treatment with a soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) inhibitor, suggesting that the effects of CO are mediated via activation of sGC. These data support the view that a single intraperitoneal dose of CO-LR ameliorates postoperative ileus in mice by inhibiting the inflammatory response in the gut wall induced by surgical manipulation, possibly in a sGC-dependent fashion.A transient episode of ileus, defined as impaired propulsive bowel motility, is common after abdominal surgery (Livingston and Passaro, 1990). However, the development of ileus can contribute to discomfort during the postoperative period as a result of abdominal distention, nausea, and emesis. In some instances, postoperative ileus can lead to more serious complications, including acute gastric dilatation, pulmonary aspiration, respiratory compromise, cardiac arrhythmias, anastomotic dehiscence, or intestinal perforation.The mechanism(s) responsible for the development of postoperative ileus are not completely understood. However, simple manipulation of the stomach, intestine, or colon is sufficient to cause a period of gut dysmotility, and inflammation within the smooth muscle coats of the bowel (Kalff et al., 1998(Kalff et al., , 2003 and activation of the nonadrenergic noncholinergic neuronal pathway (De Winter et al., 1997) have beenThis study was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants GM068481 and DK54232 and the GEMI fund.A.N. and J.S. contributed equally to this work. Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at

The motives and decision making of potential living liver donors are critical areas for transplant clinicians evaluating these candidates to understand, yet these topics remain relatively unstudied. Thus, we surveyed 77 prospective living liver donors at the point of donation evaluation using structured instruments to gather more information on their approach to and concerns about donation. We collected information on donation decision making, motives for donation and anticipated social and physical concerns about postdonation outcomes. We examined three additional characteristics of donors: gender, the relationship of the donor to the intended recipient and the presence of ambivalence about donation. Women had more concerns about their family/social responsibilities. Those donating to nonimmediate family were more likely to have been asked to donate but less likely to feel they had to donate. However, ambivalent donors were the most distinct having difficulties and concerns across most areas from their motivations for donating, to deciding to be tested and to donate, to concerns about the postdonation outcomes. We discuss the clinical relevance of these findings to donor evaluation and preparation. Psychosocial evaluation of living liver donors is a routine part of transplant programs' clinical protocols. Information obtained from these assessments informs the team about the individual's psychological well being, whether they have carefully considered the donation, are free from coercion or significant ambivalence, and determines their understanding of the donation process. From these psychosocial assessments several characteristics are consistently reported. Donors tend to be a highly motivated and altruistic. They are most often biologically or emotionally related to the intended recipient and describe a desire to help others as their primary motivation. Many have already volunteered in significant ways either through donating blood products, volunteering their time and money or already having signed an organ donor card (1,2).Despite some basic similarities donor candidates can differ considerably in their approaches to donation. In one study of gender differences, women more often reported being motivated by love, while men were more deliberate in their considerations weighing the pros and cons (3). While many donors make the decision quickly, report no significant doubts and do not feel they will change their minds even after the evaluation (1,4,5), some require time to consider their decision and may express ambivalence (4). Some report a willingness to take a high degree of risk for the recipient, especially parents and spouses (1,5). Such differences may reflect specific decision-making strategies (4).Thus initial reports of donor characteristics and qualities reveal important differences among liver donors that could impact their approaches to and expectations of donation and ultimately their experience of their postdonation outcome. Further understanding of potential donor characteristics will aid tran...

BackgroundIntestinal obstruction is a poorly recognized and probably underreported complication of strongyloidiasis. We present herein an unusual case, of complete duodenal obstruction caused by S. stercoralis.MethodsA systematic review of the literature examining the clinical course, diagnostic methods, and outcome of this rare complication of strongyloidiasis was performed.ResultsA 42-year-old woman presented with a 5-month history of abdominal pain, vomit, and weight loss. An abdominal CT scan showed an obstruction of the third part of the duodenum. Segmental intestinal resection was carried out and histopathology examination revealed heavy Strongyloides stercoralis infestation. Duodenal obstruction is a rare complication of S. stercoralis infection, with only 8 cases described in the literature since 1970. Most of the patients are males, middle-aged, and the diagnosis was made by duodenal aspirate/biopsy, or analysis of surgical specimen.ConclusionsDuodenal obstruction is an unusual, but potential fatal, complication of S. stercoralis infection. The large spectrum of clinical manifestation and lack of classic clinical syndrome make the final diagnosis of strongyloidiasis extremely difficult. A high index of suspicion, mainly in patients from endemic areas, is needed for correct and early diagnosis of this uncommon presentation of Strogyloides stercoralis enteritis.