Scholars@Duke
Samuel Kesseli

Samuel Kesseli

House Staff
Surgery

Selected Publications

Dual ex vivo lung perfusion via pulmonary and bronchial arteries in a porcine model.

Conference JTCVS Tech · October 2025 BACKGROUND: Current clinical ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) perfuses the pulmonary arteries (PA) but not the bronchial arteries (BA) that normally supply the upper airway. We hypothesized that the PA alone do not fully perfuse this region during EVLP, which ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Living Ross Procedure: A New Paradigm in Partial Heart Transplantation.

Journal Article Ann Thorac Surg · August 2025 In the Ross procedure, homograft stenosis and regurgitation have limited the longevity of the right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery (RV-PA) conduit. Partial heart transplantation (PHT) facilitates conduit growth throughout the life of the child. We report th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Resection of Intrapericardial Lymphangioma Invasive to Ventricular Apex via Left Anterolateral Thoracotomy

Journal Article Annals of Thoracic Surgery Short Reports · January 1, 2025 Here we describe a case of an intrapericardial mass identified in a patient with endocarditis and severe mitral regurgitation. Despite preoperative imaging suggestive of a pericardial origin, intraoperatively the mass was found to invade the apical ventric ... Full text Cite

Gene delivery followed by ex vivo lung perfusion using an adeno-associated viral vector in a rodent lung transplant model.

Journal Article J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · May 2024 OBJECTIVE: Ex vivo lung perfusion has emerged as a platform for organ preservation, evaluation, and restoration. Gene delivery using a clinically relevant adeno-associated vector during ex vivo lung perfusion may be useful in optimizing donor allografts wh ... Full text Link to item Cite

Adeno-associated virus mediates gene transduction after static cold storage treatment in rodent lung transplantation.

Conference J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · July 2023 OBJECTIVE: Adeno-associated virus is a clinically used gene therapy vector but has not been studied in lung transplantation. We sought to determine the efficacy of adeno-associated virus delivery during static cold storage via the airway versus the pulmona ... Full text Link to item Cite

Subnormothermic ex vivo lung perfusion attenuates graft inflammation in a rat transplant model.

Journal Article J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · August 2022 OBJECTIVE: Ex vivo lung perfusion has emerged as a novel technique to safely preserve lungs before transplantation. Recent studies have demonstrated an accumulation of inflammatory molecules in the perfusate during ex vivo lung perfusion. These proinflamma ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lung transplantation after ex vivo lung perfusion versus static cold storage: An institutional cost analysis.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · February 2022 Ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) is a novel lung preservation strategy that facilitates the use of marginal allografts; however, it is more expensive than static cold storage (SCS). To understand how preservation method might affect postoperative costs, we co ... Full text Link to item Cite

Two Compartment Evaluation of Liver Grafts During Acellular Room Temperature Machine Perfusion (acRTMP) in a Rat Liver Transplant Model.

Journal Article Front Med (Lausanne) · 2022 BACKGROUND: Subnormothermic machine perfusion (SNMP) of liver grafts is currently less clinically developed than normothermic and hypothermic approaches, but may have logistical advantages. At intermediate temperatures, the oxygen demand of the graft is lo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gene Therapy: Will the Promise of Optimizing Lung Allografts Become Reality?

Journal Article Front Immunol · 2022 Lung transplantation is the definitive therapy for patients living with end-stage lung disease. Despite significant progress made in the field, graft survival remains the lowest of all solid organ transplants. Additionally, the lung has among the lowest of ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Historical Cohort in Kidney Transplantation: 55-Year Follow-Up of 72 HLA-Identical, Donor-Recipient Pairs.

Journal Article J Clin Med · November 24, 2021 The impact of HLA matching on graft survival has been well characterized in renal transplantation, with a higher degree of matching associated with superior graft survival. Additionally, living donor grafts are known to confer superior survival compared to ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lung transplantation using allografts with more than 8 hours of ischemic time: A single-institution experience.

Conference J Heart Lung Transplant · November 2021 BACKGROUND: Six hours was historically regarded as the limit of acceptable ischemic time for lung allografts. However, broader sharing of donor lungs often necessitates use of allografts with ischemic time >6 hours. We characterized the association between ... Full text Link to item Cite

Point-of-Care Assessment of DCD Livers During Normothermic Machine Perfusion in a Nonhuman Primate Model.

Journal Article Hepatol Commun · September 2021 Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) provides clinicians an opportunity to assess marginal livers before transplantation. However, objective criteria and point-of-care (POC) biomarkers to predict risk and guide decision making are lacking. In this investig ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reexamining Risk Aversion: Willingness to Pursue and Utilize Nonideal Donor Livers Among US Donation Service Areas.

Journal Article Transplant Direct · September 2021 BACKGROUND: Livers from "nonideal" but acceptable donors are underutilized; however, organ procurement organization (OPO) metrics do not assess how OPO-specific practices contribute to these trends. In this analysis, we evaluated nonideal liver donor avoid ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

The Impact of the 2017 Kidney Allocation Policy Change on Simultaneous Liver-Kidney Utilization and Outcomes.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · August 2021 Historically in the United States, kidneys for simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation (SLKT) candidates were allocated with livers, prioritizing SLKT recipients over much of the kidney waiting list. A 2017 change in policy delineated renal function crit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Definition and Analysis of Textbook Outcome: A Novel Quality Measure in Kidney Transplantation.

Journal Article World J Surg · May 2021 BACKGROUND: "Textbook outcome" (TO) is a novel composite quality measure that encompasses multiple postoperative endpoints, representing the ideal "textbook" hospitalization for complex surgical procedures. We defined TO for kidney transplantation using a ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Preemptive VAE-An Important Tool for Managing Blood Loss in MVT Candidates With PMT.

Journal Article Transplant Direct · March 2021 UNLABELLED: Explantation of native viscera in multivisceral transplant candidates, particularly in those with extensive portomesenteric thrombosis (PMT), carries considerable morbidity due to extensive vascularized adhesions. Preemptive visceral angioembol ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Donor-Recipient Height Mismatch Is Associated With Decreased Survival in Pediatric-to-Adult Liver Transplant Recipients.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · February 2021 Liver grafts from pediatric donors represent a small fraction of grafts transplanted into adult recipients, and their use in adults requires special consideration of donor size to prevent perioperative complications. In the past, graft weight or volume rat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Kidney transplant recipients infected by COVID-19: Review of the initial published experience.

Journal Article Transpl Infect Dis · December 2020 There is an accumulating body of literature surrounding the impact of COVID-19 infection in solid organ transplant recipients. The aim of this review was to summarize the existing literature specifically in kidney transplant (KTx) recipients, with an empha ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Textbook Outcomes in Liver Transplantation.

Journal Article World J Surg · October 2020 BACKGROUND: Textbook outcome (TO) is an emerging concept within multiple surgical domains, which represents a novel effort to define a standardized, composite quality benchmark based on multiple postoperative endpoints that represent the ideal "textbook" h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outcomes in Kidney Transplantation Between Veterans Affairs and Civilian Hospitals: Considerations in the Context of the MISSION Act.

Journal Article Ann Surg · September 1, 2020 OBJECTIVE: We sought to compare kidney transplantation outcomes between Veterans Affairs (VA) and non-VA transplant centers. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Transplant care at the VA has previously been scrutinized due to geographic and systematic barriers. The r ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sirtuin-1 expression and activity is diminished in aged liver grafts.

Journal Article Sci Rep · July 17, 2020 The cellular mechanisms underlying impaired function of aged liver grafts have not been fully elucidated, but mitochondrial dysfunction appears to be contributory. Sirtuin1 has been identified as a key mediator of mitochondrial recovery following ischemia- ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index Predicts Clinical Outcomes in Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Journal Article In Vivo · 2020 BACKGROUND: Outcomes after kidney transplantation (KTx) remain limited by delayed graft function (DGF) and acute rejection. Non-invasive biomarkers may help identify patients at increased risk for these events. We examined the association between the syste ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Small Bowel Transplantation.

Journal Article Surg Clin North Am · February 2019 Intestinal and multivisceral transplants are complex technical procedures that present unique challenges in the field of solid organ transplantation. This review aims to highlight the indications, techniques, outcomes, and complications specific to intesti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Accessory Gallbladder Complicating Liver Transplantation.

Journal Article Transplant Direct · May 2018 Accessory gallbladder in a donor liver allograft is an uncommon anatomical finding that can complicate liver transplantation if unrecognized. This case describes a patient who underwent liver transplantation with a donor graft containing an accessory gallb ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pancreatic Islet Cells Mimicking Hepatic Metastases

Journal Article American Journal of Gastroenterology · June 2016 Full text Cite

Total Pancreatectomy with Islet Autologous Transplantation: The Cure for Chronic Pancreatitis?

Journal Article Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology · January 2015 Full text Cite