Experimental and clinical observations after homotransplantation of the whole liver.

In this report, attention will be focused upon new or contraversial aspects of homotransplantation of the liver. Although interest in liver transplantation dates from Welch's first reports almost 10 years ago (1, 2), there was at first little justification from laboratory experimentation for hope that such a procedure had a therapeutic clinical potential. In the recent past, the outlook has markedly changed. Transplantation of the liver can be carried out in two general ways. First, the liver of the recipient may be removed and the homograft placed in its natural right subphrenic position (3-5). Survival after such an orthotopic homotransplantation is dependent upon immediate and continued Function of the foreign hepatic tissue. Alternatively, recipient hepatectomy may be omitted in which case the homograft is inserted as an auxiliary organ in some ectopic site such as the pelvis, paravertebral gutter, or left subphrenic space (1, 2, 6-11). With the latter method, there is not