Normothermic perfusion machine in liver transplant with cardiac death donor grafts

Abstract

The increasing difference between the number of patients in waiting lists for liver transplantation and the number of available donors has generated a great interest in the use of non-ideal organs, like grafts obtained from cardiac death donors (DCD). However, the extreme sensibility to ischemia of these livers results in a low utilization rate and a high percentage of post-transplant complications and re-transplantation. Normothermic perfusion machines (NMP) emerged as an alternative that tries to maintain the viability of the organ and even to improve its function. This review focuses on current results of DCD liver transplantation and on the role that NMP may have in this field.

Keywords: Donación en asistolia; Donation after cardiac death; Isquemia caliente; Liver transplantation; Normothermic perfusion; Perfusión normotérmica; Trasplante hepático; Warm ischemia.