Donor Biliary Anatomy should not be a Contraindication for Right Liver Donation

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There are scarce data on the impact of donor biliary anatomy on the incidence of biliary complication in donors and in recipients after liver transplantation. This study tried to establish the relation between donor biliary anatomy and incidence of biliary complication after right-lobe living donor liver transplantation (RLDLT), and to determine whether donor biliary anatomy should be a contraindication to right liver donation. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on all adult recipients of RLDLT at our center from January 2011 to December 2014. They were divided into the Stricture group and the Non-stricture group. Donor biliary anatomy was classified according to Huang’s classification, and all cholangiograms were reviewed by the first author. RESULTS: There were 125 RLDLTs performed during the study period. Twenty-six recipients had biliary anastomotic stricture (the Stricture group). One donor in the Stricture group and one in the Non-stricture group had biliary stricture; both of them had type-A anatomy. Bile leakage was not seen in any donor or recipient. The most common donor biliary anatomy was type A (96/125; 76.8%), followed by type B (13/125; 10.4%) and type D (10/125; 8%). Univariate analysis found no correlation between type of donor biliary anatomy and incidence of biliary anastomotic stricture in recipients (p=0.49). CONCLUSIONS: Type of donor biliary anatomy was not related to the incidence of recipient or donor biliary complication, and therefore donor biliary anatomy should not be a contraindication to right liver donation.