Normothermic Liver Preservation Trial
End Stage Liver Disease, Liver Diseases
About this trial
This is an interventional treatment trial for End Stage Liver Disease focused on measuring normothermic perfusion, liver transplantation
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
Recipient inclusion criteria:
Adult subjects (age ≥18 years); active on the waiting list for liver transplantation at the University of Alberta Hospital; informed/deferred consent provided.
Donor liver inclusion criteria:
Whole livers from deceased donors ≥ 40kg in weight, that are deemed suitable for transplantation as per local and international practice, and at the discretion of the transplanting surgeon.
Donor livers will be placed on the metra™ device either at the donor hospital, or where more practical, transported to the University of Alberta hospital with ≤ 6 hours of cold storage and then reperfused on metra™ for ≥ 4 hours ('back-to-base' sub-analysis).
Expanded criteria grafts may include, but not be restricted to the following graft qualities. Such grafts will only be transplanted at the recipient transplant surgeon's discretion, if judged to be safe and appropriate for that individual recipient.
Donation after Neurological Determination of Death (NDD) Expanded Criteria livers may include: ≥60% macro/micro steatosis; cold ischemia > 10 hours; combined steatosis 30-60% and >6hr cold storage; significant liver trauma.
Donation after Cardio-Circulatory Death (DCD) Expanded Criteria livers may include: Age up to 75; mild steatosis (30%); DCD offers from distant centres; warm time up to 60 min.
As per standard clinical practice, the on-call recipient transplant surgeon will evaluate donor and graft information, weigh the risks and benefits of graft utilization for a particular recipient, and make the final decision about whether or not to proceed to transplantation. Based on preliminary experience with the metraTM, perfusion parameters may additionally be considered in reaching a decision:
- Normal, stable portal vein flow (≥800-1000ml/minute) and artery flow (≥200ml/minute)
- Falling lactate levels
- Stable perfusate pH within the normal range (7.2 - 7.4) after bicarbonate correction
- Evenly perfused graft on the device
Exclusion Criteria:
Recipient exclusion criteria: Age less than 18 years, allergic to required components of the perfusion solution, refusal of informed consent.
Donor liver exclusion criteria: Livers from living donors.
Sites / Locations
- University of Alberta
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Experimental
Normothermic Machine Perfusion (OrganOx metra)
Donor livers will be placed on the OrganOx metra device for normothermic perfusion before transplantation.