Vnitr Lek 2004, 50(Supplement 1):S110-S114

[The role of liver transplantation in clinical practice].

P Studeník: Centrum kardiovaskulární a transplantacní chirurgie, Brno.

The first succesful liver transplantation was made in USA in 1967. These operations had been made only in few centres in the world until the 80-ies of the last century and the results were not so good. However, along with the development of surgical techniques, immunosuppression and postoperational care the results of these operations significantly improved and their amount increased. The liver transplantation was declared the clinical therapy in USA in 1983. In the same year there was made a succesful liver transplantation in Czech republic too. Nowadays there is annually made approximately 10,000 such operations worldwide. During the last decade it is also in Czech republic where the liver transplantation has become an available therapeutic method. There are two workplaces (CKTCH Brno and IKEM Prague) where 70 such operations are made every year. The results of one-year survival are more than 90% and the long-term results and the quality of life of the patients are also very good. The liver transplantation has experienced a dynamic development in the 90-ies of the 20th century and at the edge of the millenium. There were made significant changes in the field of indications and contraindications for transplantation and immunosuppressive therapy. There developed a brand new surgical techniques making possible to use the organs of the donors who are too big, so-called reduction of the implants. Another option constitute so-called split operations when one implant may be divided into left and right lobes and thus each of them may be used separately for the two donees. Due to the significant regeneration ability of the liver tissue it is possible to make the collection of the parts of the liver from the living donor. According to the statistics of the european countries the optimal need should be 10 transplantations/1 million of inhabitants per year. The difference between the need and the real amount of operations in our country is not given by the disability of the transplantation centres to make these operations but by the fact that many suitable patients are not offered this therapeutic modality at all.