R. Todd Stravitz, Mitchell L. Shiffman, Arun J. Sanyal, Velimir A. Luketic, Richard K. Sterling, Douglas M. Heuman, April Ashworth, A. Scott Mills, Melissa Contos, Adrian H. Cotterell, Daniel Maluf, Marc P. Posner, Robert A. Fisher – 29 June 2004 – Recurrent hepatitis C after liver transplantation remains a significant cause of graft loss and retransplantation.

Mark S. Roberts, Derek C. Angus, Cindy L. Bryce, Zdenek Valenta, Lisa Weissfeld – 29 June 2004 – Our goal was to describe disease‐specific survival and the clinical variables that predict survival in a large national cohort of adult liver transplant recipients. Data on 17,044 adult patients who received an initial orthotopic liver transplant between 1990 and 1996 with follow‐up through 1999 was obtained from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

David A. Stell, Vivian C. McAlister, Douglas Thorburn – 29 June 2004 – The severity of preoperative liver disease influences the outcome of liver transplantation, is commonly used to determine priority on liver transplant waiting lists, and may differ between countries with different rates of liver disease and organ allocation systems. We compared the relative severity of liver disease in transplant recipients with chronic liver disease in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom and its relation to outcome.

Andrea E. Reid, Maria Resnick, YuChiao Chang, Nathan Buerstatte, Joel S. Weissman – 29 June 2004 – Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is the best treatment for end‐stage liver disease. Limited data exist on the access of minorities to OLT. The aim of this study was to determine whether disparities exist among black and white OLT patients. Data were collected from the United Network for Organ Sharing on black and white 18–70 year‐old OLT waiting list registrants (n = 29,013) and OLT recipients (n = 15,805) between 1994 and 1998.

Nasia Safdar, Adnan Said, Michael R. Lucey – 29 June 2004 – Selective digestive decontamination (SDD) refers to the use of antimicrobials to reduce the burden of aerobic gram‐negative bacteria and/or yeast in the intestinal tract to prevent infections caused by these organisms. Liver transplant patients are highly vulnerable to bacterial infection particularly with gram‐negative organisms within the first month after transplantation, and SDD has been proposed as a potential measure to prevent these infections. However, the benefit of this procedure remains controversial.

Robert D. Gibbons – 29 June 2004

Robert Sutcliffe, Donal Maguire, Andrej Mróz, Bernard Portmann, John O'Grady, Matthew Bowles, Paolo Muiesan, Mohamed Rela, Nigel Heaton – 29 June 2004 – There is no accurate method to determine the functional significance of bile duct strictures after liver transplantation, and although biliary reconstructive surgery (Roux‐en‐Y hepaticojejunostomy, HJ) is the second‐line treatment in patients with persistent allograft dysfunction following failed endoscopic therapy, there is no evidence to support this approach.

Martin Vogel, Esther Voigt, Hans‐Christoph Michaelis, Thomas Sudhop, Martin Wolff, Andreas Türler, Tilman Sauerbruch, Jürgen Kurt Rockstroh, Ulrich Spengler – 29 June 2004 – Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has improved the life expectancy of HIV‐infected patients, allowing orthotopic liver transplantation as a reasonable treatment option for selected patients with terminal liver disease.

Sammy Saab, Denise Kalmaz, Nupoor A. Gajjar, Jonathan Hiatt, Francisco Durazo, Steven Han, Douglas G. Farmer, R. Mark Ghobrial, Hasan Yersiz, Leonard I. Goldstein, Charles R. Lassman, Ronald W. Busuttil – 29 June 2004 – Interferon alfa has been increasingly used against recurrent hepatitis C (HCV) disease in post‐liver transplant (LT) recipients. A serious potential adverse effect is acute rejection. We reviewed our experience using interferon‐based therapy (interferon or pegylated interferon with or without ribavirin) for treating recurrent HCV in LT recipients.

Thomas Dethloff, Bent Adel Hansen, Fin Stolze Larsen – 29 June 2004 – Arterial hyperammonemia and cerebral vasodilatation correlate with cerebral herniation in patients with fulminant hepatic failure (FHF). Tacrolimus is a calcineurin inhibitor that passes the blood‐brain barrier and may increase cerebrovascular tone and restrict cerebral ammonia influx. In this study, we determined if tacrolimus prevents cerebral vasodilatation and high intracranial pressure (ICP) in the rat with portacaval anastomosis (PCA) challenged to high arterial ammonia (NH4+) concentration.