Successful liver transplantation from crossmatch-positive donors.

Abstract

published before that liver transplantation can be performed successfully in spite of positive anti-donor crossmatches detected with the standard cytotoxicity test.'2These so-called positive crossmatch cases were compiled before the classification of the responsible antibodies 3 was possible.In the present study, ten previously reported recipients whose sera contained antidonor cytotoxic antibodies were reviewed.The quantity and type of antibodies in the recipient sera were determined from their reactions to a panel of lymphocyte donors.From the results, an educated guess became possible as to whether the previous positive crossmatches against the organ donors were caused by warm anti-T antibodies or by less dangerous varieties.Finally, a fresh transplant was performed in a patient whose preoperative serum contained warm anti-T-Iymphocyte antibodies that reacted with heavy killing against the liver donor. MATERIALS AND METHODSIn II of 179 cases of orthotopic liver transplantation in Denver, the patients received liver homografts from