Authors: R. Lukšaitė1 , A.Samuilis1 , V. Sokolovas2 , A.E Tamošiūnas1 , K.Strupas2 .
1 Department of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Physics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University. 2 Clinic of gastroenterology, nephro-urology and surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University.
ABSTRACT
Liver transplantation is important treatment option for end-stage liver disease. With the gradual improvements in surgical technique and immunosuppression therapy, liver transplantation became the first line treatment for acute or chronic end stage liver disease, and in some cases malignancies or metabolic disorders. Vascular complications are the most common and dreaded complications on the early period after liver transplantation. Arterial thrombosis is the one that has most severe or even life threatening outcome. Early diagnosis of these complications can lead to early treatment and better graft and patient survival results and imaging plays a crucial role in the diagnosis of vascular complications. Ultrasound is the first choice imaging modality in early postoperative period, because of its availability, portability and good sensitivity in detecting vascular complications. This article describes the normal and transient vascular ultrasound findings after liver transplantation, reviews vascular complications after orthotropic liver transplantation and presents several clinical cases from our transplantation center.
Keywords: orthotopic liver transplantation, vascular complications, ultrasound