Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2010

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Medical Case Reports

DOI of Original Publication

10.1186/1752-1947-4-372

Comments

Originally published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1947-4-372

Date of Submission

August 2014

Abstract

Introduction

Neonatal hemochromatosis is the most common cause of liver failure and liver transplantation in the newborn. The size of the infant determines the liver volume that can be transplanted safely without incurring complications arising from a large graft. Transplantation of monosegments II or III is a standard method for the newborns with liver failure.

Case presentation

A three-week old African-American male neonate was diagnosed with acute liver failure secondary to neonatal hemochromatosis. Living-related liver transplantation was considered after the failure of intensive medical therapy. Intra-operatively a non-anatomical resection and transplantation of segments II and III was performed successfully. The boy is growing normally two years after the transplantation.

Conclusion

Non-anatomical resection and transplantation of liver segments II and III is preferred to the transplantation of anatomically resected monosegements, especially when the left lobe is thin and flat. It allows the use of a reduced-size donor liver with intact hilar structures and outflow veins. In an emergency, living-related liver transplantation should be offered to infants with liver failure secondary to neonatal hemochromatosis who fail to respond to medical treatment.

Rights

© 2010 Sharma et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Is Part Of

VCU Surgery Publications

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