Orthotopic Liver Homotransplantation

MOST of the plasma factors responsible for blood coagulation are produced in the liver. It is therefore of interest to follow the maintenance or disruption of this function that occurs in the postoperative period following homotransplantation of a liver to a hepatectomized animal. Such studies provide a clinically useful measure of the protein synthesizing ability of the transplanted liver and also give further insight into the physiological role of this organ. The profile of the coagulative and fibrinolytic changes observed in the otherwise untreated recipient of a liver also provides a basis for the planning of future clinical management of human cases. Several groups of workers have studied these changes following liver transplantation in dogs (Starzl et al,1Von Kaulla et al,2Rutherford and Hardaway,3and Stremple et al4) and in humans (Starzl et al1and Von Kaulla et al2). Because of the absence