Introduction : With the development of laparoscopic skills, its application has expanded to the living donor liver transplantation. However, due to technical difficulties, pure laparoscopic living donor right hepatectomy (PLDRH) is performed in few centers. In this report, we compare the early outcomes between PLDRH and open living donor right hepatectomy (ODRH).

Methods : Total of 78 consecutive living liver donors underwent the right hepatectomy from January 2010 to March 2017. 43 living donors underwent the ODRH and the 35 donors underwent the PLDRH. Moreover, the learning curve of each group was analyzed and compared during the experienced period.

Results : Except for the size of the right portal vein (PLDRH 13.4?.3 mm, ODRH 10.8?.2; p=0.03) donor demographic including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), fatty change and vascular and biliary anomaly were comparable. Two donors of the PLDRH group underwent open conversion due to bleeding and large graft size. There were no significant differences in the operation time, estimated blood loss (EBL), intra-operative transfusion, hospital stay and postoperative complications. However, when compared in the experience period after the learning curve (PLDRH > 15 cases, ODRH > 17 cases), EBL was lower (PLDRH 397.2?02.6 ml, ODRH 511.5?84.0 ml; p=0.04) in the PLDRH versus ODRH.

Conclusions : PLDRH can be performed safely without increasing the risk compared with ODRH. Moreover, after the experienced period of the learning curve, PLDRH was more favorable in terms of intraoperative blood loss