Prevention of ischemic-type biliary lesions by arterial back-table pressure perfusion

Abstract Ischemic-type biliary lesions (ITBLs) lead to considerable morbidity after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The exact pathogenesis is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that insufficient perfusion of biliary arterial vessels might be responsible for ITBLs. This could be prevented by improved perfusion techniques. Since February 2000, we performed a controlled study using arterial back-table pressure perfusion (AP) to achieve reliable perfusion of the biliary-tract capillary system, which may be impaired by the high viscosity of University of Wisconsin solution. We retrospectively analyzed 190 OLTs performed between September 1997 and July 2002 with regard to ITBLs. One hundre…