Hwan Y. Yoo, Violetta Galabova, David Edwin, Paul J. Thuluvath – 30 December 2003 – The outcome of liver transplantation is dependent on many factors. It was suggested that racial disparities in outcome may be related to differences in socioeconomic status (SES). In this retrospective study, we analyzed the effect of SES on graft and patient survival. Two hundred seventy‐six adult patients who underwent liver transplantation at our institution from July 1988 to June 2001 were included in the analysis.

Geoffrey W.

Michael R. Lucey – 30 December 2003

Rafik M. Ghobrial, Sammy Saab, Charles Lassman, David S.K. Lu, Steven Raman, Piyagorn Limanond, Greg Kunder, Karyn Marks, Farin Amersi, Dean Anselmo, Pauline Chen, Douglas Farmer, Steven Han, Francisco Durazo, Leonard I. Goldstein, Ronald W. Busuttil – 30 December 2003 – Severe donor organ shortage has provided the impetus for adult living donor liver transplantation (ALDLT). Despite rapid implementation and expansion of the procedure, outcome analysis of ALDLT is still incomplete. This study analyzed both donor and recipient outcomes after ALDLT at a single center.

Richard B. Freeman – 30 December 2003

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.

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, 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).

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.

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.