Retrieval of Donor Livers

At the inception of a liver transplantation program at our institution, an organ procurement service was established. Specially trained personnel, availability of a transportation system, and development of communication between distant retrieval sites and the operating room were important elements of this service. For the first 100 liver allografts in our transplantation program, 118 retrievals were necessary. The central location of the Mayo Clinic allowed retrieval from anywhere within continental North America. In this initial phase of the liver transplantation program, the concern that organ availability would be the rate-limiting factor was unfounded.