Live liver donor mortality

The review article by Middleton et al.1 published in the January 2006 issue of Liver Transplantation has an inaccuracy in the last row of Table 1. The reference quoting Beavers et al.2 included 2 donor deaths (1 from Hamburg3 and the other North Carolina4). The review by Beavers et al.2 did report our live donor liver transplantation experience of the late 1990s,5, 6 but we did not have any donor mortality in that period. Only in the year 2004, was a 50-yr-old female right liver donor was readmitted 10 weeks after surgery for fever, chills, and hematemesis. She did not have a history of peptic ulcer and was asymptomatic after the donor operation. Tachycardia, hypotension, and anemia all pointed to the diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. She developed convulsion and cardiac arrest upon upper endoscopy. Attempts of resuscitation were futile. Postmortem revealed a duodenocaval fistula that was conducive to an air embolism during upper endoscopy, resulting in the rapid demise of the donor. She had received 2 weeks of H2 antagonist after the donor operation. This was a late donor mortality.7 All of the other live liver donors in our series are well. It is also worth noting that the review by Beavers et al.2 did not mention any donor mortality from Argentina or Korea. See Ching Chan MS*, Sheung Tat Fan MS, MD, PhD, DSc*, * Department of Surgery, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China