BACKGROUND: The last decade has witnessed great progress in living donor liver transplantation worldwide. However, biliary complications are more common in partial liver transplantation than in whole liver transplantation. This is due to an impaired blood supply of the hilar bile duct during organ procurement and recipient surgery, commonly encountered anatomical variations, a relatively small graft duct, and complicated surgical techniques used in biliary reconstruction. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE and PubMed were searched for articles on 'living donor liver transplantation', 'biliary complication', 'anatomical variation', 'biliary reconstruction', 'stenting' and related topics. RESULT: In this review, biliary complications were analyzed with respect to anatomical variation, surgical techniques in biliary reconstruction, and protection of the arterial plexus of the hilar bile duct. CONCLUSION: Transecting the donor bile duct at the right place to secure a larger bile duct stump, anastomosing techniques, and stenting methods as well as preserving the blood supply to the bile duct are all important in reducing biliary complications.
Xiao-Ning Feng, Chao-Feng Ding, Mei-Yuan Xing, Min-Xia Cai and Shu-Sen ZhengDivision of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China
