A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED TRIAL BETWEEN EURO-COLLINS AND UNIVERSITY-OF-WISCONSIN SOLUTIONS AS THE INITIAL FLUSH IN HEPATIC ALLOGRAFT PROCUREMENT

University of Wisconsin solution is currently recognized as the best solution for long-term organ preservation. It is recommended that UW solution be used as the in situ flush prior to organ explantation. The purpose of our study was to determine if hepatic allograft function was impaired by flushing the graft in situ with Euro-Collins and later flushing the graft ex vivo with UW solution, prior to cold storage. Fifty-six donors were randomly assigned to either an EC (n = 24) or UW (n = 32) in situ flush. The livers flushed with EC in situ were later flushed with 1 L of UW on the back table and stored in UW solution. Livers flushed with UW in vivo were similarly flushed and stored in UW on the back table. Concerning the donor allograft, there was no statistical difference (P > 0.05) between groups in sex, race, blood type, arterial anatomy, age, prothrombin time (PT), partial thromboplastin time (PTT), total bilirubin (TBR), direct bilirubin (DBR), aspartate amino transferase (AST), or alanine amino transferase (ALT). In addition, the recipients were compared for differences in sex, race, blood type, preoperative status, number of rejections, recipient age, length of surgery, and ischemia time and patient survival. There was no significant difference between groups (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in patient survival (P = 0.238). Values for TBR, AST, ALT, PT, PTT, and AP were collected immediately preoperatively and postoperatively and on postoperative days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28. There was no difference between groups in these values (P > 0.05). In our study there was no difference between the groups with respect to graft performance. This would justify the use of EC as an in situ flush during solid organ procurement and flushing with UW solution on the back table with an estimated savings of $400 to $1200 per procurement.