Fig. 1.

Technique of orthotopic liver transplantation. Left, method used in Patients 1 and 3. Note that the celiac axis (or alternatively the common hepatic artery) of the homograft is anastomosed to the proper hepatic artery of the recipient patient. With this distal location in the recipient vessel the requisite dissection is considerably simplified. Right, reconstruction used in Patient 2. The right hepatic arterial branch of the homograft originated from the superior mesenteric artery and the left branch from the celiac axis (A). The vessels were individually attached to the 2 terminal branches of the host proper hepatic artery (B). In all 3 cases internal biliary drainage was with a cholecystoduodenostomy.