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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jan 8, 2016; 8(1): 36-57
Published online Jan 8, 2016. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i1.36
Vascular complications following liver transplantation: A literature review of advances in 2015
Tullio Piardi, Martin Lhuaire, Onorina Bruno, Riccardo Memeo, Patrick Pessaux, Reza Kianmanesh, Daniele Sommacale
Tullio Piardi, Martin Lhuaire, Reza Kianmanesh, Daniele Sommacale, Department of General, Digestive and Endocrine Surgery, Hôpital Robert Debré, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Reims, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, 51100 Reims, France
Onorina Bruno, Department of Radiology, Hôpital Beaujon, Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris, 92110 Clichy, France
Riccardo Memeo, Patrick Pessaux, Department of Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Nouvel Hôpital Civil, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Author contributions: Piardi T and Lhuaire M contributed equally to this work and wrote the paper; Piardi T, Lhuaire M, Bruno O, Memeo R, Pessaux P, Kianmanesh R and Sommacale D contributed to literature research and bibliography analysis; Piardi T, Lhuaire M, Pessaux P, Kianmanesh R and Sommacale D designed the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Daniele Sommacale, MD, Professor, Department of General, Digestive and Endocrine Surgery, Hôpital Robert Debré, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Reims, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Avenue du Général Koenig, 51100 Reims, France. dsommacale@chu-reims.fr
Telephone: +33-3-26787095 Fax: +33-3-26788739
Received: June 3, 2015
Peer-review started: June 6, 2015
First decision: July 25, 2015
Revised: December 2, 2015
Accepted: December 18, 2015
Article in press: December 21, 2015
Published online: January 8, 2016
Abstract

Although vascular complications (VCs) following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) seldom occur, they are the most feared complications with a high incidence of both graft loss and mortality, as they compromise the blood flow of the transplant (either inflow or outflow). Diagnosis and therapeutic management of VCs constitute a major challenge in terms of increasing the success rate of liver transplantation. While surgical treatment used to be considered the first choice for management, advances in endovascular intervention have increased to make this a viable therapeutic option. Considering VC as a rare but a major and dreadful issue in OLT history, and in view of the continuing and rapid progress in recent years, an update on these uncommon conditions seemed necessary. In this sense, this review comprehensively discusses the important features (epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical, prognostic and therapeutic) of VCs following OLT.

Keywords: Vascular complications, Orthotopic liver transplantation, Liver transplantation, Endovascular intervention

Core tip: Although vascular complications (VCs) following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) seldom occur, they are the most feared complications with a high incidence of both graft loss and mortality, as they compromise the blood flow of the transplant (either inflow or outflow). Diagnosis and therapeutic management of VCs constitute a major challenge in terms of increasing the success rate of liver transplantation. This review comprehensively discusses the important features (epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical, prognostic and therapeutic) of VCs following OLT.