Complimenting complex liver resection with living donor liver transplant technique: a new breed of Transplant Surgical Oncologist

Abstract

The operative techniques for complex vascular control and reconstructions, as well as understanding and management of small–for–size liver graft have improved in recent years due to culminating experience in living donor liver transplantation over the last decade. Since hepatocellular carcinoma remained an endemic disease in Asia, many clinicians still believed in the survival benefit of surgical resections for advanced staged tumor. As complex vascular resections and reconstruction is often required for hepatic resection of advanced tumor, it is conceivable that transplantation skills could only be complimentary in such circumstances. With exposure to transplantation surgery becoming a core component in training for liver surgery in many centers in Asia, a new breed of transplant–surgical oncologist becomes a separate entity on the horizon.