Clinical practice and prospect of split liver transplantation with DCD donors under normothermic regional perfusion support
10.12464/j.issn.1674-7445.2026164
- VernacularTitle:常温局部灌注支持下DCD供者劈离式肝移植的临床实践与前景展望
- Author:
Jian HE
1
;
Wei GAO
1
Author Information
1. Department of Liver Transplantation, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation of Tianjin, Tianjin 300192, China.
- Publication Type:Editorial
- Keywords:
Normothermic regional perfusion;
Donation after circulatory death;
Donation after cardiac death;
Split liver transplantation;
In-situ liver splitting;
Donor liver quality assessment
- From:
Organ Transplantation
2026;17(5):731-737
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Due to the global shortage of organs, donation after circulatory death (DCD) has become an important source of liver grafts for liver transplantation. Nevertheless, its application is limited by warm ischemic injury and technical challenges associated with in-situ splitting, and safe protocols for split liver transplantation with DCD grafts remain lacking at present. Normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) rapidly re-establishes oxygenated abdominal blood supply after circulatory arrest, effectively alleviating warm ischemic injury and creating stable operative conditions for in-situ splitting of DCD liver grafts. To date, liver splitting performed under NRP has achieved certain advances in dynamic graft assessment, monitoring of metabolic recovery, and decision-making for graft splitting. Accordingly, this article reviews the technical adaptability and preliminary clinical outcomes of in-situ split liver transplantation with DCD grafts assisted by NRP, analyses the major obstacles to its popularization, and explores future research directions, so as to provide references for further clinical application of split liver transplantation.
