Establishment of liver transplantation model with improved two-cuff in rat

Objective To build rat orthotopic liver transplantation model and use this model as an experimental animal model for further research about liver transplantation. Methods Based on the classic two-cuff technique, a variety of skills were integrated,such as abdominal aorta perfusion first before ligation, suprahepatic inferior vena cava single continuous suture, preoperative and postoperative rehydration, hepatic portal vein and infrahepatic vena cava blocked by mosquito's haemostatic forceps. At last, the postoperative survival rates of 2 days and 2 weeks were recorded. Results Donors' operation time was (35±2) min, cuffing time was (7.0±1.5) min, receptors' operation time was (80±15) min, anhepatic phase was (21±3) min. The 2-day survival rate was 92 % (46/50) and 2-week survival rate was 86 % (43/50). Conclusion To some extent,the improved methods can not only reduce the difficulty of orthotopic liver transplantation operation, but also to create a uniform, stable and reliable orthotopic liver transplantation model. Key words: Liver tansplantation; Rats; Animal model