Transplantation of discarded livers following viability testing with normothermic machine perfusion
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Authors
Colleges, School and Institutes
External organisations
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHBFT)
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Abstract
There is a limited access to liver transplantation, however, many organs are discarded based on subjective assessment only. Here we report the VITTAL clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT02740608) outcomes, using normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) to objectively assess livers discarded by all UK centres meeting specific high-risk criteria. Thirty-one livers were enroled and assessed by viability criteria based on the lactate clearance to levels ≤2.5 mmol/L within 4 h. The viability was achieved by 22 (71%) organs, that were transplanted after a median preservation time of 18 h, with 100% 90-day survival. During the median follow up of 542 days, 4 (18%) patients developed biliary strictures requiring re-transplantation. This trial demonstrates that viability testing with NMP is feasible and in this study enabled successful transplantation of 71% of discarded livers, with 100% 90-day patient and graft survival; it does not seem to prevent non-anastomotic biliary strictures in livers donated after circulatory death with prolonged warm ischaemia.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 2939 |
Journal | Nature Communications |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 16 Jun 2020 |