Upfront Normothermic Machine Perfusion for a Liver Graft with Severe Macrovesicular Steatosis: A Proof-of-Concept Case

Abstract

Graft steatosis has been associated with inferior outcomes after liver transplantation. Given the rising prevalence of obesity and fatty liver disease, strategies allowing safe and successful utilization of fatty liver grafts are needed. Liver preservation by normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) allows reducing ischemia-reperfusion injury, extending preservation time and assessing graft viability prior to implantation into the recipient. NMP can be initiated at the donor hospital using a transportable device (referred to as upfront NMP or normothermic machine preservation) or after a period of cold ischemia (known as back-to-base). In this report, we present the case of a graft from an HCV-positive DBD donor with 70% macrovesicular steatosis, which was successfully preserved and transplanted using upfront NMP. This approach was key to minimize initial injury to the graft and allowed assessing its viability before transplantation, while improving transplant logistics. Upfront NMP represents a promising approach to enhance the transplantation of fatty liver grafts.