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Is Routine Intraoperative Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography Useful During Whole Liver Transplantation?

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Abstract

Background

Vascular complications following liver transplantation (LT) may result from technical deficiencies. Intraoperative diagnosis remains challenging but can prevent serious delayed complications. Intraoperative Doppler ultrasonography (IOUS) represents the gold standard for imaging, although it requires radiological skills. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography has been reported during postoperative assessments, but never intraoperatively (CE-IOUS). The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of routine CE-IOUS, to evaluate its impact on surgical strategy and its usefulness.

Methods

All 553 whole LTs performed in our tertiary centre between 01/2010 and 12/2014 were reviewed. We compared perioperative outcomes and long-term survival in IOUS (n = 370) versus CE-IOUS (n = 103) groups. Secondarily, the seven cases where the two imaging findings conflicted (CE+ Group) were matched 1:2 and compared with an exclusively IOUS procedure (CE− Group, n = 14) to assess the consequences of a specific CE-guided strategy.

Results

CE-IOUS assessments were successful in 100% of cases, without any adverse effects. Vascular complications and patient/graft survival rates were identical in the IOUS and CE-IOUS groups (p = 0.65, 0.95 and 0.86, respectively). CE-IOUS confirmed IOUS findings in 93% of cases (n = 96) and led to the realization of an additional procedure (median arcuate ligament lysis) and six conservative strategies despite poor arterial (n = 5) or venous flow (n = 1) under Doppler analysis. The CE+ and CE− groups presented statistically identical perioperative and long-term outcomes.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated the feasibility of CE-IOUS during whole LT. However, we failed to demonstrate any advantages of CE-IOUS over IOUS. Therefore, IOUS currently remains the gold-standard imaging technique for the intraoperative assessment of vascular patency.

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Abbreviations

CE-IOUS:

Intraoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasonography

CEUS:

Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography

CCI:

Comprehensive Complication Index

CHA:

Common hepatic artery

GDA:

Gastroduodenal artery

HA:

Hepatic artery

HAS:

Hepatic artery stenosis

HAT:

Hepatic artery thrombosis

ICU:

Intensive care unit

IOUS:

Intraoperative Doppler ultrasonography

LT:

Liver transplantation

POD:

Postoperative day

PVT:

Portal vein thrombosis

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AP-HP Hôpital Paul-Brousse, Centre Hépato-Biliaire, 12 Avenue Paul Vaillant Couturier, 94800, Villejuif Cedex, France

    Nicolas Golse, Simone Santoni, Vincent Karam, Oriana Ciacio, Gabriella Pittau, Marc-Antoine Allard, Daniel Cherqui, Antonio Sa Cunha, René Adam, Denis Castaing & Eric Vibert

  2. Inserm, Unité 785, 94800, Villejuif, France

    Nicolas Golse, Daniel Cherqui, Denis Castaing & Eric Vibert

  3. Univ Paris-Sud, UMR-S 785, 94800, Villejuif, France

    Nicolas Golse, Daniel Cherqui, Denis Castaing & Eric Vibert

  4. DHU Hepatinov, 94800, Villejuif, France

    Nicolas Golse, Marc-Antoine Allard, Daniel Cherqui, Antonio Sa Cunha, René Adam, Denis Castaing & Eric Vibert

  5. Inserm, Unité 935, 94800, Villejuif, France

    Marc-Antoine Allard, Antonio Sa Cunha & René Adam

  6. Univ Paris-Sud, UMR-S 935, 94800, Villejuif, France

    Marc-Antoine Allard, Antonio Sa Cunha & René Adam

Authors
  1. Nicolas Golse
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  2. Simone Santoni
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  3. Vincent Karam
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  4. Oriana Ciacio
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  9. René Adam
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  10. Denis Castaing
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Correspondence to Nicolas Golse.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Golse, N., Santoni, S., Karam, V. et al. Is Routine Intraoperative Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography Useful During Whole Liver Transplantation?. World J Surg 42, 1523–1535 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-017-4295-x

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