Roman Schumann, Luis Zabala, Michael Angelis, Iwona Bonney, Hocine Tighiouart, Daniel B. Carr – 26 February 2004 – Living liver donors for adult liver transplant recipients undergo extensive liver resection. Partial donor hepatectomies may alter postoperative drug metabolism and hemostasis; thus, the risks and the benefits of pain management for this unique patient population may need to be reassessed. The safety and efficacy of combined epidural analgesia and field infiltration in our initial living liver donor group are presented.

Scott K. Epstein, Richard B. Freeman, Ahmad Khayat, John N. Unterborn, Daniel S. Pratt, Marshall M. Kaplan – 26 February 2004 – The shortage of donor organs highlights the need to better identify patients most likely to benefit from hepatic transplantation. Reduced aerobic capacity (decreased peak oxygen consumption [V̇O2] during symptom‐limited cardiopulmonary exercise testing) is frequently present in cirrhosis. Peak V̇O2 during cardiopulmonary exercise testing may predict short‐term outcome after hepatic transplantation.

Maria Rita Montenegro Isern, Paulo Celso Bosco Massarollo, Eliane Maria de Carvalho, Carlos Eduardo Sandoli Baía, Jorge Kavakama, Poliana de Andrade Lima, Sérgio Mies – 26 February 2004 – During the anhepatic phase of conventional liver transplantation (LT), the inferior vena cava (IVC) is cross‐clamped and venovenous bypass (VVB) is usually indicated for diversion of IVC and portal blood flow. VVB can theoretically lead to pulmonary complications due to the contact of the blood with the surfaces of the circuit. In the piggyback method, preservation of the IVC avoids VVB.

Mandana Khalili, Jessica Watson Lim, Nathan Bass, Nancy L. Ascher, John P. Roberts, Norah A. Terrault – 26 February 2004 – Epidemiological studies suggest diabetes mellitus (DM) may be an extrahepatic manifestation of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Since diabetes and HCV are common in liver transplant recipients, we sought to examine the unique contribution of HCV infection to risk of de novo diabetes posttransplantation. Using a cohort of 555 liver transplant recipients (median age 49 years, 54% males, 82% Caucasian) without preexisting diabetes from 3 U.S.

Edmond Schmied, Jean‐François Dufour, Sylvie Euvrard – 26 February 2004 – The skin, easily accessible for medical examination, is affected in many ways by liver transplantation. Mucocutaneous manifestations of advanced liver disease and dermatologic conditions associated with specific hepatic diagnoses generally improve after liver transplantation. Vasculitic lesions due to cryoglobulinemia associated with hepatitis C, and photosensitivity due to porphyria are occasional exceptions. Dermatologic diseases complicating the posttransplantation course can be challenging.

Atul Humar, Ian McGilvray, Murray J. Phillips, Gary A. Levy – 30 January 2004

Jan M. Ruijter, Roben G. Gieling, Marry M. Markman, Jaco Hagoort, Wouter H. Lamers – 30 January 2004 – The liver is thought to consist of lobules, numerous repeating, randomly oriented units. Within these lobules, genes are expressed in gradients along the porto‐central axis, which spans the distance between portal and central veins. We have developed a robust stereological method to map all points in an image to their position on this porto‐central axis.

Ulrich Thalheimer, Maria Mela, David Patch, Andrew K. Burroughs – 30 January 2004 – Many of the complications of cirrhosis reflect the presence of portal hypertension, which is commonly expressed as the hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG). Baseline and repeat measurements of HVPG have been recommended for the management of patients with cirrhosis in the setting of pharmacologic prophylaxis of variceal bleeding and for gaining information about prognosis.

Stefan Reuter, Andreas Buck, Burkhard Manfras, Wolfgang Kratzer, Hanns Martin Seitz, Kassa Darge, Sven Norbert Reske, Peter Kern – 30 January 2004 – In human alveolar echinococcosis (AE), benzimidazoles are given throughout life because they are only parasitostatic. It has been a longstanding goal to limit treatment, and recent reports suggest that, in selected cases, benzimidazoles may be parasitocidal. Previously, we showed that positron –emission tomography (PET) using [18F]fluoro‐deoxyglucose discriminates active from inactive lesions in AE.

Craig McClain, Daniel Hill, Marcello Kugelmas – 30 January 2004