Alexander E. Handschin, Markus Weber, Eberhard Renner, Pierre‐Alain Clavien – 22 December 2004 – The abdominal compartment syndrome is a well‐known complication after abdominal trauma and is increasingly recognized as a potential risk factor for renal failure and mortality after adult orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). We present a case report of a young patient who presented with acute liver failure complicated by an acute pancreatitis. The patient developed an acute abdominal compartment syndrome after OLT.

Maureen M. Jonas, Laura E. Krawczuk, Heung Bae Kim, Craig Lillehei, Antonio Perez‐Atayde – 22 December 2004 – Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been reported in adults with hypothalamic or pituitary dysfunction, and some have progressed to end stage liver disease requiring transplantation. We report a teenager who intially presented with hypoxia due to intrapulmonary shunting, found to have NAFLD and cirrhosis associated with a hypothalamic tumor and panhypopituitarism. The NAFLD recurred very quickly after a successful liver transplant.

22 December 2004

J. Ignacio Herrero, María Lorenzo, Jorge Quiroga, Bruno Sangro, Fernando Pardo, Fernando Rotellar, Javier Alvarez‐Cienfuegos, Jesús Prieto – 22 December 2004 – Immunosuppression increases the risk of posttransplant malignancy and it may increase posttransplant mortality. The finding of factors related to the development of posttransplant malignancy may serve as a guide to avoid those risk factors and to develop strategies of posttransplant surveillance. The incidence and risk factors of malignancy were studied in 187 consecutive liver transplant recipients surviving more than 3 months.

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