Are the imaging findings used to assess the portal triad reliable to perform living-donor liver transplant?

BACKGROUND A crucial aspect of living-donor liver transplant is the risk imposed to the donor due to a procedure performed in a healthy individual that can lead to a high postoperative morbidity rate AIM To correlate the pre- and intraoperative hepatic imaging findings of living adult donors. METHODS From 2003 to 2008 the medical charts of 66 donors were revised; in that, 42 were males (64%) and 24 females (36%), mean age of 30 ± 8 years. The preoperative anatomy was analyzed by magnetic resonance cholangiography to study the bile ducts and by computed tomography angiography to evaluate the hepatic artery and portal vein. Normalcy criteria were established according to previously published studies. RESULTS Anatomic variations of the bile ducts were found in 59.1% of donors, of the artery hepatic in 31.8% and of the portal vein in 30.3% of the cases during the preoperative period. The magnetic resonance cholangiography findings were in agreement in 44 (66.6%) of donors and in disagreement in 22 (33.3%). With regards to hepatic artery, in all donors the findings of the imaging examination were in agreement with those of the intraoperative period. As to the portal vein, the computed tomography findings were in agreement in 59 (89.4%) donors and in disagreement in seven (10.6%). CONCLUSIONS The bile duct anatomic variations are frequent, and the magnetic resonance cholangiography showed moderate accuracy (70%) in reproducing the surgical findings; the computed tomography reproduced the intraoperative findings of the hepatic artery in 100% of donors, and of the portal vein in 89.4% of the cases, thus demonstrating high accuracy (89%).