A new surgical procedure consisting of ligation of the common hepatic artery and auto-transplantation of hepatocytes into the spleen for end stage liver cirrhosis accompanied by ascites.

The authors developed a new surgical procedure for end stage liver cirrhosis associated with ascites. This procedure consists of ligation of the common hepatic artery and hepatocyte inoculation into the spleen (method A) and in this study is compared with common hepatic artery ligation alone (method B). Six of the eleven dogs operated by method A survived for six months or more with a significant (P < 0.01) difference in the three month survival in comparison with method B. In the hemodynamic study of both methods, the portal vein pressure and portal resistance decreased as a result of operation, but in method B, they returned to preoperative levels and in method A the low levels persisted for more than one year. In our method, liver function improved remarkably after three months. The hepaplastin and the cholinesterase levels increased after three months in method A with a significant difference (P < 0.01) in comparison with method B. The labeling index (L.I.) of intrasplenic hepatocytes also increased three months later. We emphasize that our method is an ideal procedure not only to improve portal haemodynamics but also to improve liver function, in end stage cirrhosis.