The process of anesthesia, prior to the actual surgery starting, can take 1-2 hrs. The anesthesia portion involves sedation, paralysis, intubation (insertion of a breathing tube), IV lines (arterial, central venous, cardiac monitoring), and occasionally transesophageal echocardiography.
In addition, prior to surgery a catheter will be placed into your bladder to drain urine and tube in our stomach via your nose (nasogastric tube). These catheters are generally removed on post op day 3-4. On rare occasion depending on your condition – the catheters may stay longer.
In some instances, surgery starts by proceeding with incisions made in your upper chest and grown for placing large IV lines to allow for blood “bypass”. Once this is completed an incision on your abdomen.
The two veins, one artery, and bile duct of the new liver all require surgical reconstruction. These are major blood vessels in the body and extreme care is taken during the re-sewing of these vessels.