Thirty-two patients recruited among liver transplant recipients submitted to surgery at the Liver Unit at the Hospital das Clínicas of the University of São Paulo Medical School between 8 th October, 1999 and 30 rd September, 2000 were studied. The patients were assigned by randomization to two groups: transplant performed using the conventional or the piggyback method. These patients are part of a larger clinical trial where pulmonary alterations are compared between patients operated using the conventional method with venovenous bypass and the piggyback method.(10) Inclusion criteria admitted of both genders, aged 18 years or older, submitted to a first elective LTx, with no clinical or technical reasons justifying a preferential option by conventional or piggyback method. For this reason, we excluded patients submitted to living donor LTx, in whom IVC is routinely preserved and those with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, whom, in our routine, are routinely submitted to conventional LTx.