Life-Sustaining Canine Hepatic Autotransplants

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Partial hepatic autotransplantation of the left lobes in dogs was performed with hepatectomy of the remaining lobes at either a staged (group 1) or simultaneous (group 2) procedure. Direct portal flow was established in group 2 dogs only. Values of postoperative liver function tests returned toward normal rapidly in group 2 animals but were abnormal in group 1 dogs until resection of the right lobes, handicapped by arterial and bile duct ligation at the second stage. Technetium Tc 99m liver scans and arteriograms demonstrated increasing size of the autotransplants in both groups, but at autopsy two months later, the weights and histological patterns indicated greater regeneration in group 2 than in group 1 dogs. Life-sustaining capability of autotransplanted liver lobes was established in dogs. There are possible clinical applications of these results, especially in patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: