Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2022; 14(7): 1504-1511
Published online Jul 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i7.1504
Volumetric assessment of hepatic grafts using a light detection and ranging system for 3D scanning: Preliminary data
Georgios Katsanos, Konstantina-Eleni Karakasi, Ion-Anastasios Karolos, Athanasios Kofinas, Nikolaos Antoniadis, Vassilios Tsioukas, Georgios Tsoulfas
Georgios Katsanos, Konstantina-Eleni Karakasi, Athanasios Kofinas, Nikolaos Antoniadis, Georgios Tsoulfas, Department of Transplantation, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Hippokration General Hospital, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece
Ion-Anastasios Karolos, Vassilios Tsioukas, Department of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece
Author contributions: Katsanos G and Karakasi KE contributed equally to this work; Katsanos G, Karakasi KE, and Tsoulfas G designed the research study; Katsanos G, Karakasi KE, Karolos IA, and Kofinas A performed the research; Antoniadis N and Karakasi KE conducted the data analysis and statistical analysis; Katsanos G, Tsoulfas G, and Tsioukas V analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Katsanos G, Kofinas A, and Tsoulfas G revised the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, No. T1EDK-03599.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 3.479).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors of this manuscript having no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Georgios Tsoulfas, FACS, FICS, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Transplantation, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Hippokration General Hospital, No. 49 Konstantinoupoleos Street, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece. tsoulfasg@gmail.com
Received: January 30, 2022
Peer-review started: January 30, 2022
First decision: March 7, 2022
Revised: April 10, 2022
Accepted: June 27, 2022
Article in press: June 27, 2022
Published online: July 27, 2022
Processing time: 177 Days and 19.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Liver transplantation has evolved into a safe life-saving operation and remains the golden standard in the treatment of end stage liver disease. The main limiting factor in the application of liver transplantation is graft shortage. Many strategies have been developed in order to alleviate graft shortage, such as living donor partial liver transplantation and split liver transplantation for adult and pediatric patients. In these strategies, liver volume assessment is of paramount importance, as size mismatch can have severe consequences in the success of liver transplantation.

AIM

To evaluate the safety, feasibility, and accuracy of light detection and ranging (LIDAR) 3D photography in the prediction of whole liver graft volume and mass.

METHODS

Seven liver grafts procured for orthotopic liver transplantation from brain deceased donors were prospectively measured with an LIDAR handheld camera and their mass was calculated and compared to their actual weight.

RESULTS

The mean error of all measurements was 17.03 g (range 3.56-59.33 g). Statistical analysis of the data yielded a Pearson correlation coefficient index of 0.9968, indicating a strong correlation between the values and a Student’s t-test P value of 0.26. Mean accuracy of the measurements was calculated at 97.88%.

CONCLUSION

Our preliminary data indicate that LIDAR scanning of liver grafts is a safe, cost-effective, and feasible method of ex vivo determination of whole liver volume and mass. More data are needed to determine the precision and accuracy of this method.

Keywords: Light detection and ranging; Graft volume; 3dscan; Ex vivo volumetry; Liver grafts

Core Tip: Liver transplantation (LT) is the golden standard in the treatment of end stage liver disease. The main limiting factor in the application of LT is graft shortage and over the years, many strategies have been developed in order to increase graft availability, such as living donor liver transplantation and split liver transplantation. In these strategies, liver volume assessment is of paramount importance in the success of LT. In this preliminary proof-of-concept study, we evaluated the use of light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology for ex vivo measurement of hepatic grafts. Preliminary data indicate that LIDAR scanning of liver grafts is a safe, cost-effective, and feasible method of ex vivo determination of whole liver volume and mass.