Live liver donors: Are they at a higher risk for post-operative thrombotic complications?

Live liver donor transplantation to adult recipients is becoming a common practice, increasing the organ pool and providing an alternative to whole cadaveric liver transplantation. These patients are healthy adults without serious medical conditions and typically have normal coagulation profiles preoperatively. Right hepatic lobectomy is usually performed for adult recipients, while left hepatic lobectomy is performed for pediatric recipients. Removal of the whole right lobe from the donors may expose theses patients to multiple intraoperative and postoperative complications. Hypercoagulability has been identified as a serious complication which leads to thromboembolic phenomena with potential fatal consequences. The primary aim of this review is to look at possible changes in post-operative coagulation dynamics that may increase the risk for development of thromboembolic complications in live liver donors. In this article, we stress the importance of addressing the issue that conventional clotting tests (PT, INR, PTT) are unable to detect a hypercoagulable state, and therefore, we should examining alternative laboratory tests to improve diagnosis and early detection of thrombotic complications. Measurement of natural anticoagulant/procoagulant biomarkers combined with conventional coagulation studies and thromboelastography offers a more accurate assessment of coagulation disorders. This allows earlier diagnosis, permitting appropriate intervention sooner, hence avoiding potential morbidity and mortality. Biomarkers that may be evaluated include, but are not limited to: protein C, soluble P-selectin, antithrombin III, thrombin-antithrombin complex, and thrombin generation complex.