Isabelle Morard, Jérôme Dumortier, Laurent Spahr, Antoine Hadengue, Pietro Majno, Philippe Morel, Gilles Mentha, Emiliano Giostra – 24 April 2007 – Sirolimus (SRL) has been proposed to replace calcineurin inhibitors (CNI) in case of CNI‐induced toxicity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of conversion from CNI to SRL in maintenance liver transplantation (LT) patients. Between 2002 and 2006, conversion was performed in 48 patients (17 female, 31 male; mean age 57 ± 10 yr) after a median delay of 19.4 months (range 0.2–173 months) after LT.

Neal R. Barshes, Natasha S. Becker, W. Kenneth Washburn, Glenn A. Halff, Thomas A. Aloia, John A. Goss – 24 April 2007 – Although the Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) scoring system has improved the ability to measure medical urgency for transplantation, geographic disparities in the probability of being delisted as a result of complications of end‐stage liver disease or death and in the probability of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) remain.

Marco Vivarelli, Giuliano La Barba, Alessandro Cucchetti, Augusto Lauro, Massimo Del Gaudio, Matteo Ravaioli, Gian Luca Grazi, Antonio D. Pinna – 24 April 2007 – To ascertain whether postoperative antiplatelet therapy could reduce the incidence of hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) after liver transplantation (LT), 838 consecutive adult whole‐graft LTs performed from April 1986 to August 2005 that survived beyond the first postoperative month were reviewed.

Paul J. Thuluvath, Karen L. Krok, Dorry L. Segev, Hwan Y. Yoo – 24 April 2007 – It has been suggested that the post–liver transplantation (LT) survival rate of patients with hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) has declined in recent years. To compare the outcome of LT in patients with HCV at various time intervals between 1991 and 2001, we used United Network for Organ Sharing data to compare the post‐LT survival of adult patients (age >18 years) with HCV with those without HCV.

Maximilian Schmeding, Ulf Peter Neumann, Gero Puhl, Marcus Bahra, Ruth Neuhaus, Peter Neuhaus – 24 April 2007 – Today, hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause for liver transplantation (LT) and viral recurrence is almost universal. It has been suggested that viral replication within the transplanted tissue might be increased in organs of reduced size such as LD grafts. In the current literature the data is controversial, with many studies lacking routine liver biopsies.

Shin Hwang, Sung‐Gyu Lee, Deok‐Bog Moon, Chul‐Soo Ahn, Ki‐Hun Kim, Young‐Joo Lee, Tae‐Yong Ha, Gi‐Won Song – 24 April 2007 – Salvage liver transplantation has been performed for recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or deterioration of liver function after primary liver resection. Because prior liver resection per se is an unfavorable condition for living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), we assessed the technical feasibility of LDLT after prior hepatectomy, and we compared the outcome of salvage LDLT with that of primary LDLT in HCC patients.

Farzan Filsoufi, Sacha P. Salzberg, Parwis B. Rahmanian, Thomas D. Schiano, Hussien Elsiesy, Anthony Squire, David H. Adams – 10 April 2007 – Liver cirrhosis is a major risk factor in general surgery. Few studies have reported on the outcome of cardiac surgery in these patients. Herein we report our recent experience in this high‐risk patient population according to the Child‐Turcotte‐Pugh classification and Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score.

Sébastien Dharancy, Jeanne Boitard, Thomas Decaens, Géraldine Sergent, Emmanuel Boleslawski, Christophe Duvoux, Claire Vanlemmens, Carole Meyer, Jean Gugenheim, François Durand, Olivier Boillot, Nicole Declerck, Alexandre Louvet, Valérie Canva, Olivier Romano, Olivier Ernst, Philippe Mathurin, François René Pruvot – 10 April 2007 – Supraselective transarterial chemoembolization (STACE) more efficiently targets chemotherapy delivered via the feeding arterial branches of the tumor than does conventional transarterial chemoembolization (TACE).

Robert G. Gish – 29 March 2007

Olga Tucker, Narendra Battula, Pauline Kane, John Karani, Nigel Heaton, Paolo Muiesan – 29 March 2007