Abstract:

BACKGROUND: With an obvious decrease in biliary complications caused by pure bile duct anastomosis after liver transplantation, ischemic biliary damage caused by damage to arterial blood supply due to various factors should be paid more attention.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the anatomical structure of bile duct, physiological morphology of peribiliary vascular plexus, mechanisms underlying the damage to peribilary vascular plexus caused by liver transplantation and resultant biliary complications and how to prevent the damage to peribiliary vascular plexus.
METHODS: A computer-based online search of PubMed, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang databases was performed for relative articles about liver transplantation and peribiliary vascular plexus published before December 2010, with key words of “liver transplantation, peribiliary vascular plexus, biliary complications, microcirculation of bile duct, ischemia-reperfusion injury” in English and in Chinese by screening titles and abstracts. The contents of the article associated with liver transplantation and peribiliary vascular plexus were selected, and those published recently or in authoritative journals were preferred in the same field.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Totally 228 articles were obtained in initial retrieval, 23 articles of them were chosen to summarize based on inclusion criteria. The peribiliary vascular plexus was primarily composed of hepatic artery terminal branches, which provide bile duct blood supply and nutrition. The biliary tree was damaged by various factors in liver transplantation, and most factors directly or indirectly act on the peribiliary vascular plexus, leading to biliary complications.