Hepatic Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a frequently encountered complication in a variety of clinical scenarios including liver transplantation, major hepatic resection, abdominal trauma surgery and hemorrhagic shock. In the late nineteenth century, Dr. James Hogarth Pringle, a celebrated surgeon, developed a technique in which the blood flow through the hepatic artery and portal vein was occluded in order to achieve hemostasis during abdominal surgery for hemorrhage associated with liver trauma. This technique was later named the Pringle maneuver. With the growth in the field of hepatobiliary surgery, this technique of total vascular occlusion was adapted and has enabled surgeons to perform complex procedures such as orthotropic liver transplantation and large liver resections and repairs that otherwise would have resulted in massive hemorrhage and certain death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]