Abstract:Objective:To explore the operative technique of liver retransplantation. Methods:The clinical data of 24 patients who underwent liver retransplantation in the recent 4 years in our center were reviewed. In all of the patients a modified piggy-back liver transplantation was adopted. Extracorporeal venous bypass was used in 6 cases, and no bypass was used in 18 cases. We anastomosed the suprahepatic inferior vena cava to the annexed vena cava in a modified piggy-back figuration. The portal vein was reconstructed by end-to-end anastomosis. In 17 cases the hepaticy artery was anastomosed end-to-end, and in the other 7 cases was anastomosed to abdominal aorta by interposition graft. In 6 cases the biliary tract was reconstructed by end-to-end anastomosis, and in the others by choledochojejunostomy. All of the patients were routinely followed up after operation. Results:Postoperative mortality of liver retransplantation was 41.6% (10/24). The cause of death was sepsis in 7 patients, intraoperative bleeding in 2, and cerebral hemorrhage in 1. The other patients(14/24,58.4%) successfully recovered after liver retransplantation. The complication rate in this group was 21.4%%(3/14), including biliary tract complications in 2 patients, and wound dehiscence in 1. Conclusions:There was no significant difference in operative time and blood loss between liver retransplantation and primary transplantation. The key for success is to adopt individuation in selection of methods for liver retransplantation. The difficulty of liver retransplantation is exposure and mobilization of inferior vena cava. The probability of interposition graft from hepatic artery to abdominal aorta and choledochojejunostomy is higer than that of primary liver transplantation.