TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategic breakthrough in adult ABO-incompatible living donor liver transplantation
T2 - Preliminary results of consecutive seven cases
AU - Soejima, Yuji
AU - Muto, Jyun
AU - Matono, Rumi
AU - Ninomiya, Mizuki
AU - Ikeda, Tetsuo
AU - Yoshizumi, Tomoharu
AU - Uchiyama, Hideaki
AU - Ikegami, Toru
AU - Shirabe, Ken
AU - Maehara, Yoshihiko
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - ABO-incompatibility is a major obstacle to expanding exiguous donor pools in adult liver transplantation, especially in countries where grafts from deceased donors are uncommon. We present our preliminary results of ABO-incompatible (ABO-I) adult living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) using a new, simple protocol. Seven consecutive cases of ABO-I LDLT were managed by the same protocol including pre-operative administration of a single dose of rituximab (375 mg/m2) followed by three to five sessions of plasma exchange before LDLT without portal infusion therapy. The triple immunosuppression protocol consisted of tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and steroids, with mycophenolate mofetil starting seven d before LDLT. Splenectomy was performed for all cases. All patients are alive (100% survival) with a mean follow-up of 852 d (715-990 d). Neither antibody-mediated nor hyperacute rejection were encountered. There was only one episode of mild acute cellular rejection, for which steroid augmentation was effective. The median preformed isoagglutinin antibody titer before plasma exchange was 256, while the median antibody titer immediately before LDLT was 16. In conclusion, adult ABO-I LDLT results were excellent - comparable or even superior to those of ABO-compatible LDLT. ABO-I adult LDLT has now become a more applicable modality without the need for an appropriate donor.
AB - ABO-incompatibility is a major obstacle to expanding exiguous donor pools in adult liver transplantation, especially in countries where grafts from deceased donors are uncommon. We present our preliminary results of ABO-incompatible (ABO-I) adult living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) using a new, simple protocol. Seven consecutive cases of ABO-I LDLT were managed by the same protocol including pre-operative administration of a single dose of rituximab (375 mg/m2) followed by three to five sessions of plasma exchange before LDLT without portal infusion therapy. The triple immunosuppression protocol consisted of tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and steroids, with mycophenolate mofetil starting seven d before LDLT. Splenectomy was performed for all cases. All patients are alive (100% survival) with a mean follow-up of 852 d (715-990 d). Neither antibody-mediated nor hyperacute rejection were encountered. There was only one episode of mild acute cellular rejection, for which steroid augmentation was effective. The median preformed isoagglutinin antibody titer before plasma exchange was 256, while the median antibody titer immediately before LDLT was 16. In conclusion, adult ABO-I LDLT results were excellent - comparable or even superior to those of ABO-compatible LDLT. ABO-I adult LDLT has now become a more applicable modality without the need for an appropriate donor.
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U2 - 10.1111/ctr.12060
DO - 10.1111/ctr.12060
M3 - Article
C2 - 23293980
AN - SCOPUS:84876071961
SN - 0902-0063
VL - 27
SP - 227
EP - 231
JO - Clinical Transplantation
JF - Clinical Transplantation
IS - 2
ER -