Living donor liver transplantation followed by total gastrectomy--a two-stage planed operative strategy for early gastric cancer concomitant with decompensated liver cirrhosis.

AIM With the recent popularization of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), providing treatment for comorbidities in LDLT recipients has become important. We report the first case of a patient who was successfully treated with LDLT followed by total gastrectomy for early gastric cancer concomitant with decompensated liver cirrhosis. CASE REPORT A 64-year-old female was admitted for the treatment of severe liver cirrhosis. The patient's preoperative liver function was evaluated as Child-Pugh classification grade C. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed early gastric cancer. We first performed LDLT to improve her liver function and coagulopathy. Nineteen days after the LDLT, we performed total gastrectomy. RESULTS The patient's postoperative course was uneventful and she left our hospital on the 18th day after gastrectomy. The final pathological diagnosis of gastric cancer was Stage IA. CONCLUSION Aggressive and adequate surgical strategy including LDLT is effective as curative treatment in patients with controllable malignancy concomitant with severe liver dysfunction.