Search

The Aim: of the study was to analyse the first 102 living-related liver transplantations performed in Poland at the Children's Memorial Health Institute., Material: between November 1999 and January 2007 102 living-related liver transplantations were carried out in 101 patients. In 63 the patients the indication for liver transplantation was biliary atresia, in 7 - intrahepatic cholestasis, in 11 - acute liver failure, in 9 - hepatic tumour, in two - graft insufficiency. The remaining indications included hepatic cirrosis in course of cystic fibrosis, Caroli disease and biliary cysts. There were 61 girls and 40 boys aged from 4 months to 11 years (mean 2.5 years). The body weight ranged from 4.5 to 31 kg (mean 12 kg)., Results: eighty seven children are alive (86%). Five died in the early posttranplant period (between 2 and 11 days after operation), 9 died in the later period (from 36 days to 5 years and 10 months after the operation). The most serious, life threatening early and late complications were bacterial infections. The most frequent scheme of immunosuppressive treatment was tacrolimus and corticosteroids (64%) and tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil (16%)., Conclusion: living-related liver transplantation is an effective method of treatment of acute and end-stage liver diseases in children with low body mass.

Unlabelled: Amanita phalloides is a direct life-threatening poisoning because of acute multiorgan failure. Urgent liver transplantation (LTx) is the last chance to save patient's life in severe cases. In many cases of mushroom poisoning the patient dies because of unavailability of a liver graft. Liver albumin dialysis (MARS) is a promising treatment to bridge the patient to LTx or stabilize his or her condition until spontaneous liver regeneration occurs., Case Report: Four family members (father, mother and two sons) were eating self-collected mushrooms (Russula vesca). Typically for the Amanita phalloides poisoning, the first symptoms appeared in all persons more than 12 hours after mushroom ingestion. Because they did not improve, the whole family was admitted to the Regional Hospital in Ketrzyn (24 hours after mushroom ingestion). Mycological examination of gastric washings was positive only in the mother, in whom the Amanita phalloides spores were found. During the first 48 hours of poisoning the biochemical indexes of liver injury were observed in all persons. The whole family members were sent to centers where liver albumin dialysis could be performed: the mother was admitted to the Department of Nephrology and Dialysis Therapy in Olsztyn, the father and the first son were admitted to the Clinical Toxicology Department in Krak6w, and the second son was admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine and Acute Poisonings in Gdańsk. Three albumin dialysis procedures were performed in the case of mother with complete liver recovery. After the first liver albumin dialysis, the father of the family was disqualified from the following procedures because of severe coagulation disturbances (GI bleeding), and died the fourth day after mushroom ingestion. The first son fulfilled the King's College criteria and was accepted for high urgency liver transplantation. After two albumin dialysis procedures had been able and the patient was urgently sent to the Department of General and Transplantation Surgery in Szczecin, where liver transplantation was successfully performed. The second son was treated conservatively with improvement of general condition and biochemical indexes and no albumin dialysis procedure was necessary., Conclusion: Liver albumin dialysis may be effective in severe Amanita phalloides poisoning to stabilize the condition of a patient until spontaneous liver regeneration occurs or as a bridge to LTx. In cases of a family poisoning, proper coordination and cooperation among toxicology departments and transplant centers is required.

So far 5 cases of severe acute liver failure in the course of Amanita phalloides poisoning, treated in Department of Toxicology in Poznań were regarded for need of liver transplantation. In September 2001, 4 patients were directed to transplantology center: 3 adult persons were treated in Department of General Surgery and Liver Diseases, Medical University of Warsaw, and one 15-year-old boy in Department of Pediatric Surgery and Organ Transplantation, Children's Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw. According to King's College Hospital criteria a family of three qualified for liver transplantation. 40-year-old mother died during transplantation, 41-year old father and his 15-year old son underwent operation successfully. Two years after liver transplantation these two men were admitted to Department of Toxicology in Poznań for their clinical status assessment. Based on observations made in Department of Toxicology we conclude the management of patients who meet the clinical indicators of poor prognosis should be discussed with a transplantology center in the early stage of severe acute liver failure.

The case report of a 20 year old woman with fulminant liver failure and hemolytic syndrome was described. Huge amounts of copper excreted in the urine (3555 mg/12 h without, and 5180 mg/12 h after d-penicillamine provocation, respectively) confirmed the diagnosis of fulminant Wilson's disease. Because the patient's general condition worsened rapidly (hemolysis, diathesis hemorrhagic, ascites, encephalopathy increased during 3 days of clinical observation) orthotopic liver transplantation was performed. After the transplantation, ischemic type biliary lesion (ITBL) II stage was diagnosed. The woman is still being treated with Prograf and Urso-Falk. The patient returned to her normal life, continues to work and was married. Two years after OLT she gave birth to a healthy boy. The liver function tests are normal with the exception of GGTP and FALK activities elevation. Copper and ceruloplasmin level, as well as copper excretion in the urine are within the normal values.

Hepatic parenchymal cell transplantation is a promising method for managing patients with the acute liver failure and may create a bridge to whole organ grafting. Elimination or reduction of the immunogenicity of the hepatocytes would permit long-term graft survival without the need of non-specific immunosuppression. The presented experimental evidence suggests that modulation of hepatocyte immunogenicity by purification and cryopreservation reduces the alloresponse to hepatocytes both in vitro and in vivo. Identification of inoculated cells facilitates long-term monitoring of their localization and metabolic activity.

The authors present their own experience in orthotopic liver transplantation as a treatment of acute and chronic liver failure. 18 transplantations were performed in 16 patients. The indications for transplantation: acute liver failure-3 cases, chronic advanced disease of the liver-13 cases, graft failure requiring retransplantation-2 cases. All 3 patients with acute failure died after transplantation. Out of 13 patients after elective transplantations 11 remain alive, (in this number both retransplanted). The longest follow-up period is 2.5 years.