Life‐threatening or nearly life‐threatening complications in living liver donors

Objective To determine the relationship between a transplant center's experience and life‐threatening or nearly life‐threatening complications during living donor hepatectomy ( LDH ). Methods The medical records of 1140 patients who underwent LDH were analyzed. To determine the relationship between life‐threatening complications and a transplant center's experience, the following comparisons between LDH cases were performed: first 100 vs subsequent 100; first 100 vs subsequent 1040; first 200 vs subsequent 940; right hepatectomy vs left hepatectomy; and first 5 years of experience vs subsequent 5 years. Results A total of 36 life‐threatening or nearly life‐threatening complications developed in 34 of 1140 (2.98%) healthy individuals undergoing LDH . Of these, 5 occurred intraoperatively, 26 within 1 month, and 5 beyond 1 month. The most common complications were biliary problems and postoperative bleeding. None of the donors died at follow‐up. One donor underwent deceased donor liver transplantation ( DDLT ) for severe hepatic failure. Only 2 comparisons were significantly different with regard to life‐threatening complications: the first 100 vs the subsequent 1040 ( P  = .03) and the first 200 vs the subsequent 940 ( P  = .01). Conclusion This study indicates that the incidence of life‐threatening or nearly life‐threatening complications are reduced by increased center experience (>200 LDH s).