Flemming Tofteng, Fin Stolze Larsen – 30 December 2003 – Swelling of cerebral glial cells is a characteristic complication in patients with acute liver failure (ALF). This astrocyte edema may result in high intracranial pressure (ICP) and brain herniation before or during liver transplantation. Metabolic alterations responsible for the development of high ICP in patients with ALF are not fully understood. We describe changes in neurochemistry during liver transplantation using a cerebral microdialysis technique in a young man with severe ALF and cerebral edema.

Connie L. Davis, Thomas A. Gonwa, Alan H. Wilkinson – 30 December 2003 – Liver‐kidney transplantation (LKT) should be reserved for those recipients with primary disease affecting both organs. However, increasing transplant list waiting times have increased the development and duration of acute renal failure before liver transplantation. Furthermore, the need for posttransplant calcineurin inhibitors can render healing from acute renal failure difficult.

Timothy S. Walsh, O. James Garden, Alistair Lee – 30 December 2003 – During liver transplantation, reperfusion traditionally is performed through the portal vein. After anecdotal observations that patients who underwent reperfusion first through the hepatic artery were more hemodynamically stable, we performed an exploratory, prospective, observational, nonrandomized study to compare cardiovascular stability, acid‐base status, and metabolic gas exchange between patients who underwent reperfusion through either the portal vein or hepatic artery.

Surasak Leelaudomlipi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Junichi Kaneko, Yuichi Matsui, Takao Ohkubo, Masatoshi Makuuchi – 30 December 2003 – Right‐lobe graft has been used most frequently for living donor liver transplantation in adult patients; however, some donors cannot donate their right lobe (according to the Healey and Scroy's terminology) because the remaining residual liver would be too small. A recent study suggested the possibility of right posterior segment graft in these donors.

Michiel C. Warlé, Ayar Farhan, Herold J. Metselaar, Wim C.J. Hop, Chris Perrey, Pieter E. Zondervan, Marcel Kap, Sjoerd de Rave, Jaap Kwekkeboom, Jan N.M. IJzermans, Hugo W. Tilanus, Vera Pravica, Ian V. Hutchinson, Gerda J. Bouma – 30 December 2003 – Interindividual differences exist in the capacity to produce cytokines. It has been reported that levels of in vitro cytokine production measured after stimulated cell culture are associated with polymorphisms in cytokine genes.

Richard B. Freeman, Ann M. Harper, Erick B. Edwards – 30 December 2003 – For several years, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Liver and Intestinal Transplantation Committee has been examining effects of changes and proposed changes to the liver allocation system. The Institute of Medicine recently recommended that the size of liver distribution units be increased to improve the organ distribution system. Methods to achieve this and the potential impact on patients and transplant centers of such a change are evaluated in this study.

Ling‐Jia Wang, Yong Ming Chen, David George, Francois Smets, Etienne M. Sokal, Eric G. Bremer, Humberto E. Soriano – 30 December 2003 – Transplanted hepatocytes can engraft, proliferate, and function permanently in host animals. After one cell infusion, however, engrafted hepatocytes constitute only between 1 in 200 to 1 in 3000 host liver cells. Although transplanted cells can be identified using biochemical and molecular techniques, more accurate methods are needed to evaluate interventions that could improve cell engraftment rates.

Francis Y. Yao, Linda Ferrell, Nathan M. Bass, Peter Bacchetti, Nancy L. Ascher, John P. Roberts – 30 December 2003 – We previously proposed modified staging criteria for predicting acceptable outcome after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). These were solitary tumor ≤6.5 cm, or three or fewer nodules with the largest lesion ≤4.5 cm and total tumor diameter ≤8 cm, without gross vascular invasion (University of California, San Francisco [UCSF] criteria).

Andreas Pascher, Igor M. Sauer, Marc Walter, Enrique Lopez‐Haeninnen, Tom Theruvath, Antonino Spinelli, Ruth Neuhaus, Utz Settmacher, Andrea R. Mueller, Thomas Steinmueller, Peter Neuhaus – 30 December 2003 – Right lobe living donor liver transplantation (LD‐LTx) is currently performed at an increasing number of transplant centers. Donor selection, donor safety, donor recovery, and postdonation psychological impairment are essential criteria to determine whether and under which conditions LD‐LTx is justifiable.

Francis Y. Yao, Nathan M. Bass, Bev Nikolai, Timothy J. Davern, Robert Kerlan, Victor Wu, Nancy L. Ascher, John P. Roberts – 30 December 2003 – A major obstacle for orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) as treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is tumor growth resulting in dropout from the waiting list for OLT. There is a paucity of data on survival according to intention‐to‐treat analysis and the rate of dropout from the waiting list for OLT among patients with HCC.