Gérald Longheval, Pierre Vereerstraeten, Philippe Thiry, Myriam Delhaye, Olivier le Moine, Jacques Devière, Nadine Bourgeois, Michael Adler – 30 December 2003 – The limited number of donor organs has placed a burden on the medical community to improve patient selection and timing of liver transplantation (LT). We aim to evaluate short‐ and long‐term survival of 124 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of nonbiliary cirrhosis. Seventeen clinical, biochemical, functional, and hemodynamic parameters were computed.

Ramón Rull, Oscar Vidal, Dulce Momblan, Francisco Xavier González, Miguel Angel López‐Boado, Jose Fuster, Luis Grande, Miguel Bruguera, Katiana Cabrer, Juan Carlos García‐Valdecasas – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of different donor and recipient parameters that have been recognised previously as proven and to suggest prognostic factors for immediate liver function and final outcome after liver transplantation. We evaluated a total of 228 liver grafts transplanted in the last 3 years in our institution.

Kwan Man, Chung‐Mau Lo, Terence Kin‐Wah Lee, Xian‐Liang Li, Irene Oi‐Lin Ng, Sheung‐Tat Fan – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study is to identify the molecular mechanism of small‐for‐size graft injury through large‐scale expression measurement of intragraft gene profile by carrier DNA (cDNA) microarray screening in liver transplantation.

Josh Levitsky, Helen S. Te, Stanley M. Cohen – 30 December 2003 – A small group of patients may require total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, or other joint replacement surgery after OLT for osteoporotic fractures, osteonecrosis, and osteoarthritis. Although arthroplasty is safe in the general population, its safety in liver transplant recipients is unclear. The aim of the study was to determine the safety and outcome of joint replacement surgery in our liver transplant recipients.

Stephen L. Guthery, John F. Pohl, John C. Bucuvalas, Maria H. Alonso, Frederick C. Ryckman, William F. Balistreri, James E. Heubi – 30 December 2003 – We sought to estimate the prevalence of reduced bone mass, defined by lumbar spine bone mineral density (LS‐BMD) (z‐score < −2.0), and to determine the factors associated with LS‐BMD after liver transplantation in children and adolescents. LS‐BMD z‐scores were measured in a sample of subjects who had undergone liver transplantation in childhood or adolescence using dual energy x‐ray absorptiometry (DXA).

Marco Vivarelli, Giuliano La Barba, Cristina Legnani, Alessandro Cucchetti, Roberto Bellusci, Gualtiero Palareti, Antonino Cavallari – 30 December 2003 – Hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) is a main cause of graft loss and patient mortality after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Several surgical and nonsurgical risk factors have been associated with HAT. Retransplantation often is the only possible treatment for this complication; however, the incidence of recurrence of HAT after retransplantation and the underlying conditions of this occurrence have never been investigated.

Juliet Compston – 30 December 2003

Garrett M. Hisatake, Teng‐Wei Chen, John F. Renz, Douglas G. Farmer, R. Mark Ghobrial, Hasan Yersiz, Rafael G. Amado, Leonard Goldstein, Ronald W. Busuttil – 30 December 2003 – It is well recognized that orthotopic liver transplantation rapidly corrects the coagulation disorder observed in patients with hemophilia A or B combined with end‐stage liver disease; however, the transmission of hemophilia from a donor to a transplant recipient has not been reported previously.

Janis E. Blair, Vijayan Balan, David D. Douglas, Joseph G. Hentz – 30 December 2003 – Coccidioidomycosis is an endemic fungal infection of the desert southwestern United States. Patients with end‐stage liver disease (ESLD) have not been described as having a high rate of coccidioidal infection. We prospectively evaluated 290 patients with ESLD for liver transplantation and found that 6 of these patients )2.1%) had active coccidioidal infection at presentation.

Wendy J. Grant, Timothy McCashland, Jean F. Botha, Byers W. Shaw, Debra L. Sudan, Alejandro Mejia, Kishore Iyer, Alan N. Langnas – 30 December 2003 – A 26‐year‐old woman presented with acute Budd‐Chiari syndrome 18 weeks into a pregnancy. She was found to be heterozygous for the G20210A prothrombin gene mutation. She was treated with portacaval shunt placement and successfully completed the pregnancy, with a healthy baby delivered at 31 weeks' gestation.