Early Days of Liver Transplantation

Abstract

The early days of liver transplantation were exciting, demanding, subject to terrible disappointments and sadness but occasional elation, and a gradual understanding of the factors necessary to achieve a satisfactory operation. In addition, care of an extremely sick patient, the management of the disease, especially if it was infectious or malignant, and the support of the relatives and the transplant team, required a group of loyal, dedicated and above all optimistic members who could see through the repeated unhappy outcomes that eventually most of the problems would be solved. This in fact has come to pass.

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“…This idea of "spontaneous tolerance" was soon confirmed by Calne in Cambridge. 17 Thus, began a new line of research investigating the basis for this reaction and potential for its clinical application.…”

General Introduction: Advances in Hepatic Surgery

“…Despite the fact that immunosuppressive drugs became available at that time, most grafts were rejected though. As a result, only a few dogs survived [178][179][180][181].…”

“…The most important complication of these early transplantations however, was severe blood loss. This was caused by manipulation of abdominal veins which had been under great pressures due to chronic liver diseases [179]. The first orthotropic liver transplantation in Europe was performed in Cambridge in 1968 by Calne [186].…”

Comprehensive Evaluation of a Donated After Circulatory Death (DCD) Donor Liver Model in Minipigs

“…Hepatic transplantation is a treatment option for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure; however, the availability of donor livers is a major limitation [ 1 , 2 ]. In the early 1990s, attempts were made to expand the donor pool by using livers donated after circulatory death (DCD), albeit with less favorable outcomes compared with using livers donated after brain death (DBD) [ 1 ].…”