Useful parameters for predicting posttransplant liver viability

Although liver transplantation has become a safe and efficient treatment of end stage liver disease, early graft failure after transplantation still remains an important problem. Because livers are very susceptible to irreversible damage after ischemia, those harvested for transplantation must meet with severe restrictions. For example, livers harvested from hypotensive donors, or those cold-preserved for more than eight or ten hours are usually not transplanted. On the other hand, because of considerable organ shortage, it is necessary to avoid wastage of any viable livers available. Therefore, precise evaluation or prediction of posttransplant liver viability before implantation is extremely important to avoid both organ wastage and posttransplant liver failure. In this present study, three different parameters, tissue wet/dry weight ratio, tissue sodium/potassium ratio (Na/K), and tissue energy charge (EC) were evaluated for their usefulness in predicting liver viability following transplantation, using an orthotopic porcine liver transplant model.