Auxiliary liver transplantation is a technique of transplantation of partial or whole liver graft in which the recipient’s own liver is not removed.
Acute liver failure is a potentially fatal condition with low spontaneous recovery rates.
Non-cirrhotic patients with acute liver failure and viable liver tissue may benefit from auxiliary liver transplantation which is intended to replace temporarily the functions of the failing liver until the native liver recovers. Once the native liver recovered, the graft can be removed or left in place without immunosuppressive therapy, resulting in rejection and subsequent graft atrophy.
We report the case of a 58 year old male patient admitted to the ICU with acute liver failure and positive serology was for HBV infection. Subsequently he developed hepatic encephalopathy and coma that required an emergent liver transplantation.
The patient underwent an auxiliary complete liver transplantation. A whole cadaveric liver was transplanted following left lobectomy of the native liver. Shortly after the transplantation the patient`s neurological status improved and liver function tests normalized.
The patients follow up included MR and sonographic imaging. After 8 months an ultrasound guided liver biopsy was performed to prove the recovery of the liver tissue.
It is important to be aware of this rare procedure, in order to correctly recognize the anatomy and diagnose the pathology in these cases.
