Matteo Cescon, Gian Luca Grazi, Giorgio Ercolani, Bruno Nardo, Matteo Ravaioli, Andrea Gardini, Antonino Cavallari – 30 December 2003 – Isolated cases or small series of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) with grafts from donors older than 80 years have been reported, but the long‐term outcome of patients receiving livers from extremely old donors is unknown. From 1998 to 2003, we performed 17 OLTs with donors older than 80 years (median, 82 years; range, 80 to 87 years). No deaths occurred in the early postoperative period.

Kim M. Olthoff – 30 December 2003 – Key points

Gerald S. Lipshutz, Lee Ann Baxter‐Lowe, Tim Nguyen, Kirk D. Jones, Nancy L. Ascher, Sandy Feng – 30 December 2003 – Transplantation of organs procured from donors with malignancies identified subsequent to implantation presents a significant dilemma regarding the optimal management strategy to simultaneously minimize the risk for cancer transmission and recipient morbidity. In this report, we present a patient who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation for hepatitis B cirrhosis. The donor had no previous history of cancer.

Ryan M. Thomas, John J. Brems, Grace Guzman‐Hartman, Sherri Yong, Patricia Cavaliere, David H. Van Thiel – 30 December 2003 – An analysis of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Liver Transplant Registry data shows that the greater the viral load at the time of transplantation, the more rapidly clinically evident posttransplantation hepatitis C virus (HCV) disease recurs. These data suggest that aggressive pretransplantation treatment of HCV might delay recurrent posttransplantation HCV disease and enhance posttransplantation survival.

Sammy Saab, Victor Wang, Ayman B. Ibrahim, Francisco Durazo, Steven Han, Douglas G. Farmer, Hasan Yersiz, Marcia Morrisey, Leonard I. Goldstein, R. Mark Ghobrial, Ronald W. Busuttil – 30 December 2003 – The Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) is an important predictor in patients awaiting orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). However, the model's association with posttransplant patient survival is unclear. We studied 1‐year patient survival in 404 adult patients who underwent OLT at the University of California Los Angeles.

Ibrahim Astarcioglu, Sedat Karademir, Hüseyin Gülay, Seymen Bora, Hüseyin Astarcioglu, Salih Kavukcu, Mehmet Türkmen, Alper Soylu – 30 December 2003 – Primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1) is a rare inherited metabolic disorder in which deficiency of the liver enzyme AGT leads to renal failure and systemic oxalosis. Timely, combined cadaveric liver‐kidney transplantation (LKT) is recommended for end‐stage renal failure (ESRF) caused by PH1; however, the shortage of cadaveric organs has generated enthusiasm for living‐related transplantation in years.

Fulya Gunsar, Nancy Rolando, Sabrina Pastacaldi, David Patch, Maria L. Raimondo, Brian Davidson, Keith Rolles, Andrew K. Burroughs – 30 December 2003 – Late hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) is a rare complication after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), conventionally described as occurring more than 30 days after surgery. Only a few reports document its course. In a consecutive series of 634 OLTs (704 grafts), 11 patients (1.7%) had late HAT, diagnosed a median of 6 months (range, 1.8 to 79 months) after OLT.

Patrick S. Kamath, W. Ray Kim – 30 December 2003

Marion M. Aw, Nigel W. Brown, Toshi Itsuka, Christopher E. Gonde, Jemimah E. Adams, Nigel D. Heaton, J. Michael Tredger, Giorgina Mieli‐Vergani, Anil Dhawan – 30 December 2003 – The aim of this study is to study mycophenolic acid (MPA) pharmacokinetics in stable pediatric liver transplant recipients and determine which times best represent the area under the concentration versus time curve (AUC) of MPA plasma concentrations.

Roberto J. Firpi, David R. Nelson, Gary L. Davis – 30 December 2003 – Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is an immunosuppressive agent that is widely used in the management of liver transplant recipients. MMF inhibits the inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase that has been shown to have in vitro antiviral properties against flaviviruses, suggesting the possibility that it might also inhibit the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The goal of this short‐term dose escalation study was to assess the antiviral effects of MMF on HCV replication.