Application of endovascular stapler in living-donor liver transplantation.

We used an endovascular stapler in recipients of living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Hepatic veins were transected in 10 recent LDLTs (6 right-lobe and 4 left-lobe grafts), and the portocaval shunt was transected in 5 of these 10 LDLTs. Median operative time with the vascular stapler was 861 minutes (range 675 to 932), whereas the median time to liver explantation was 292 minutes (range 200 to 461) (both with P < or = .05 vs vascular stapler use). To our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of an endovascular stapler device in LDLT.