Swine partial liver transplantation model for practicing living donor liver transplantation based on a new liver segmentation method
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea
Abstract
- Background
Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is one of the most technically demanding and complicated procedures. However, unlike deceased donor liver transplantation, there is no suitable animal model for practicing LDLT. Herein, we propose a new liver segmentation method and a feasible pig LDLT model for practicing for LDLT in humans.
Methods
Four landrace pigs weighing 25, 25, 27, and 28 kg were used as donors and recipients to establish a partial liver transplantation model. Partial liver transplantation was performed using a right liver and a left liver, respectively, based on a new segmentation system compatible with that of humans.
Results
We established a new segmentation system for porcine liver transplantation and a partial liver transplantation model. For right liver transplantation, 91 and 142 minutes was required to operate on the donor and recipient, respectively; for left liver transplantation, 57 and 104 minutes was required to operate on the donor and recipient, respectively. All pigs that underwent par-tial liver transplantation remained alive until the operation was complete.
Conclusions
It is expected that this new pig model based on the new segmentation system will be suitable as an educational tool for LDLT training and will replace the existing animal models for partial liver transplantation.