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World J Hepatol. Jul 18, 2015; 7(14): 1856-1865
Published online Jul 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i14.1856
Spectrum of biliary complications following live donor liver transplantation
Priya Simoes, Varun Kesar, Jawad Ahmad
Priya Simoes, Varun Kesar, Jawad Ahmad, Division of Liver Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, United States
Author contributions: Simoes P made the substantial contribution to manuscript design and manuscript writing; Kesar V contributed to writing the manuscript; Ahmad J conceptualized and designed manuscript drafted and critically revised the manuscript and approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest to disclose.
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: Jawad Ahmad, MD, FRCP, Division of Liver Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1428 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10029, United States. javbob@hotmail.com
Telephone: +1-212-2418035 Fax: +1-212-7317340
Received: October 7, 2014
Peer-review started: October 20, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: January 22, 2015
Accepted: July 7, 2015
Article in press: July 8, 2015
Published online: July 18, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is associated with increased risk of post transplant biliary complications in recipients and donors, namely bile leaks and biliary strictures. Large bile leaks present early after LDLT and are treated with endoscopic stenting. Ischemic injury to cholangiocytes is the main cause of stricture formation. These may present early or late and are managed with endoscopic dilation followed by stent placement. Occasionally, surgical repair may be required. Cast formation may complicate biliary strictures, requiring endocopic extraction and frequent replacement of stents with cleaning of biliary sludge and debris.