Josh Levitsky, Olaf Guckelberger – 5 December 2011 – The International Liver Transplantation Society held its yearly meeting as a joint conference with the European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association and the Liver Intensive Care Group of Europe at the Valencia Congress Center (Valencia, Spain) from June 22 to 25, 2011.

Yue Yu, James E. Fisher, Joseph B. Lillegard, Brian Rodysill, Bruce Amiot, Scott L. Nyberg – 5 December 2011 – Cell therapies, which include bioartificial liver support and hepatocyte transplantation, have emerged as potential treatments for a variety of liver diseases. Acute liver failure, acute‐on‐chronic liver failure, and inherited metabolic liver diseases are examples of liver diseases that have been successfully treated with cell therapies at centers around the world.

Anton I. Skaro, Edward Wang, Vadim Lyuksemburg, Michael Abecassis – 5 December 2011

Wojciech Rudzinski, Alfonso H. Waller, Amit Prasad, Sunita Sood, Christine Gerula, Arun Samanta, Baburao Koneru, Marc Klapholz – 5 December 2011 – The inability to achieve 85% of the maximum predicted heart rate (MPHR) on dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) is defined as chronotropic incompetence and is a predictor of major cardiac events after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The majority of patients with end‐stage liver disease (ESLD) receive beta‐blockers for the prevention of variceal bleeding.

Varun Saxena, Jennifer C. Lai, Jacqueline G. O'Leary, Elizabeth C. Verna, Robert S. Brown, R. Todd Stravitz, James F. Trotter, Kartik Krishnan, Norah A. Terrault, for the Consortium to Study Health Outcomes in HCV Liver Transplant Recipients – 5 December 2011 – African American (AA) recipient‐donor race mismatch has been associated with graft loss and mortality, but studies of an association between race mismatch and hepatitis C virus (HCV) disease severity are lacking.

Lakhbir Sandhu, Charbel Sandroussi, Markus Guba, Markus Selzner, Anand Ghanekar, Mark S. Cattral, Ian D. McGilvray, Gary Levy, Paul D. Greig, Eberhard L. Renner, David R. Grant – 5 December 2011 – Several studies have reported higher rates of recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) versus deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT). It is unclear whether this difference is due to a specific biological effect unique to the LDLT procedure or to other factors such as patient selection.

Benjamin L. Shneider – 5 December 2011 – Sclerosing cholangitis, an uncommon disorder in children, is progressive and is, therefore, an important indication for pediatric liver transplantation. This review summarizes current challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of this rare form of pediatric liver disease. Liver Transpl 18:277–281, 2012. © 2011 AASLD.

Umberto Baccarani, Stefania Bidinost, Marcello Tavio, Pierluigi Viale, Gian Luigi Adani – 5 December 2011

Vanessa Sauer, Ramsi Siaj, Sandra Stöppeler, Ralf Bahde, Hans‐Ullrich Spiegel, Gabriele Köhler, Andree Zibert, Hartmut H.‐J. Schmidt – 5 December 2011 – The outcome of consecutive hepatocyte transplants was explored in a rat model of Wilson's disease before the onset of fulminant hepatitis without preconditioning regimens. Rats received a high‐copper diet in order to induce a rapid induction of liver failure. Sham‐operated rats (15/15) developed jaundice and fulminant hepatitis, and they died within 4 weeks of first transplantation.

Richard Ruiz, Koji Tomiyama, Jeffrey Campsen, Robert M. Goldstein, Marlon F. Levy, Greg J. McKenna, Nicholas Onaca, Brian Susskind, Glenn W. Tillery, Goran B. Klintmalm – 5 December 2011 – Whether a positive crossmatch result has any relevance to liver transplantation (LT) outcomes remains controversial. We assessed the impact of a positive crossmatch result on patient and graft survival and posttransplant complications. During a 20‐year period, 2723 LT procedures with crossmatch results were identified: 2479 primary transplants and 244 retransplants.