Assessment and Transplantation of Orphan Donor Livers: A Back-to-Base Approach to Normothermic Machine Perfusion.
Angus HannHanns LembachHermien HartogM Thamara P R PereraPublished in: Liver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society (2021)
We read with great interest the work by Reiling et al (1). This is a fine example of utilizing marginal grafts deemed not safely transplantable via static cold storage (SCS), but perfused at the transplant centre via a back-to-base model. The positives of the paper are at least four allografts with significantly elevated transaminases (>1000 U/L) have been utilized which would otherwise be discarded, and no ischaemic cholangiopathy in DCD grafts. We are also pleased to see that one of these grafts was transplanted into a patient undergoing re-transplantation, an approach currently being investigated at our center.