Shintaro Yagi, Taku Iida, Kentaro Taniguchi, Tomohide Hori, Takashi Hamada, Koji Fujii, Shugo Mizuno, Shinji Uemoto – 22 December 2004 – Several reports claim that portal hypertension after living‐donor liver transplantation (LDLT) adversely affects graft function, but few have assessed the impact of portal venous pressure (PVP) on graft regeneration. We divided 32 adult LDLT recipients based on mean PVP during the 1st 3 days after LDLT into a group with a PVP ≥ 20 mm of Hg (H Group; n = 17), and a group with a PVP < 20 mm of Hg (L Group; n = 15).

Vassilios Smyrniotis, Nikolaos Arkadopoulos, Georgia Kostopanagiotou, John Vassiliou, John Contis – 22 December 2004 – Abnormalities of recipient or donor vascular structures are associated with reconstructive difficulties in liver transplantation. A patient with thrombosis of the right hepatic vein and associated stricture of the inferior vena cava (IVC), portal vein thrombosis and multiple aberrant arteries underwent orthotopic liver transplantation. The donor's suprahepatic IVC was anastomosed to the recipient's intrathoracic IVC.

Olivier Boillot, David A. Mayer, Karim Boudjema, Mauro Salizzoni, Bruno Gridelli, Franco Filipponi, Pavel Trunecka, Marek Krawczyk, Pierre‐Alain Clavien, Christian Ducerf, Carlos Margarit, Raimund Margreiter, José Mir Pallardo, Krister Hoeckerstedt, George‐Phillipe Pageaux – 22 December 2004 – This open, randomized (1 : 1), multicenter, 3‐month study compared a dual tacrolimus plus steroids (Tac / steroids) regimen with a steroid‐free immunosuppressive regimen of tacrolimus following daclizumab induction therapy (Tac / Dac) in adult liver transplant recipients.

Rachel Taylor, Linda S. Franck, Faith Gibson, Anil Dhawan – 22 December 2004 – We critically examined research on health‐related quality of life (HRQL) in children and adolescents after liver transplantation. The specific aims were to identify research studies on HRQL after liver transplantation, to critique the methodological quality of the studies, to estimate overall HRQL after transplant, and to make recommendations for future research.

John C. Bucuvalas, Estella Alonso – 22 December 2004

J. Ignacio Herrero, Jorge Quiroga, Fernando Pardo, Bruno Sangro – 22 December 2004

Bruce R. Bacon – 22 December 2004

Marek Radkowski, Tomasz Laskus – 22 December 2004 – It is presumed that resolution of hepatitis C, as evidenced by normalization of liver function tests and disappearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA from serum, as determined by conventional laboratory assays, reflects virus eradication.

Yoji Kishi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Yuichi Matsui, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Noboru Motomura, Shinichi Takamoto, Masatoshi Makuuchi – 22 December 2004 – Minimizing graft congestion in partial liver transplantation is important, especially when the graft weight is marginal for the recipient metabolic demand. We prefer the double vena cava technique for reconstructing middle hepatic vein tributaries with thick, short hepatic veins because the technique can reduce the warm ischemic time of the graft and make a wide anastomosis. This technique requires a cryopreserved superior or inferior vena cava.

Alan J. Wigg, Bridget K. Gunson, David J. Mutimer – 22 December 2004 – Seronegative hepatitis is a common cause of acute liver failure (ALF) requiring liver transplantation. The primary aim of this study was to examine outcomes following transplantation in this group and to identify factors associated with early (<2 months) mortality. Patients studied were 110 consecutive cases of seronegative ALF transplanted at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, between January 1992 and January 2004.