Anesthetic management of a pregnant living related liver donor

Chen, K.-H.; Liu, C.-C.; Yang, C.-H.; Wang, C.-H.; Concejero, A.M.; Luk, H.-N.; Jawan, B.

doi:10.1016/j.ijoa.2005.10.003

« Previous Next »International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia
Volume 15, Issue 2 , Pages 149-151, April 2006

Anesthetic management of a pregnant living related liver donor

Department of Anesthesiology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical Center, Chang Gung University, Taipei, Taiwan, China

Accepted September 2005.

Kuan-Hung Chen, Chien-Cheng Liu, Chien-Hui Yang, Chih-Hsien Wang, Allan M. Concejero, Hsiang-Ning Luk, Bruno Jawan, Department of Anesthesiology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical Center, Chang Gung University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Summary

Pregnancy is often considered a contraindication to living related liver donation. There are serious medical and ethical considerations if a pregnant woman insists on undergoing partial hepatectomy to save her sick child. Herein we report a case of living related liver donation from a pregnant woman at 18 weeks of gestation to her 1-year-old child with decompensated cirrhosis due to biliary atresia. The left lateral segment of the liver was harvested for donation. Meticulous surgical technique and anesthetic management were mandatory in assuring a successful outcome. While this isolated case demonstrated that living related liver donation can be performed successfully with a pregnant donor, it should be undertaken only when there is absolutely no other donor and the recipient is in urgent need.

Keywords: Living donor liver transplantation, Donor hepatectomy, Pregnant donor, Anesthesia