Langenbeck's archives of surgery
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Langenbecks Arch Surg · May 2008
ReviewCurrent concepts in transplant surgery: liver transplantation today.
The discipline of liver transplantation (LTx) has been developed over the past decades, and LTx is now considered the gold standard for the treatment of patients with end-stage liver diseases and early liver tumors in cirrhotic livers. This procedure is now performed routinely in many transplant centers, and it has provided an enormous technical innovation to the field of hepatobiliary surgery. Allocation decision of liver organs is based on medical need and timing. ⋯ LTx is now considered a safe and standardized procedure with a substantially improved graft and patient survival and acceptable morbidity rates. However, the new problems, including recurrence of hepatitis C or hepatocellular carcinoma, chronic biliary complications, opportunistic infections, and development of de-novo malignancies are the major problems affecting the long-term outcome of transplanted patients.
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The present study attempted to identify the diagnostic significance of procalcitonin (PCT) in acute abdominal conditions as well as the range of concentrations relating to diagnosis of abdominal sepsis. ⋯ Our results suggest that PCT measurements may be useful for early, preoperative diagnosis of abdominal sepsis.