Living Liver Donation

The liver carries out many functions and damage to it can affect every major organ in the body.
Liver impairment can affect the body's ability to absorb life-enhancing vitamins and nutrients, prevent waste products from being effectively eliminated and reduces the production of proteins. When the liver is damaged, energy levels plummet, the blood loses its ability to clot, concentration becomes poor and heart and lung function deteriorate.

Although the liver often can recover from injury, extensive disease throughout the entire organ sometimes makes this impossible. When 80-90% of liver function is lost, a liver transplant is the only treatment option. Living donor liver transplantation, made possible by the unique ability of the liver to regenerate within 6-8 weeks, is a life saving procedure.

Success with living kidney donation, coupled with the chronic shortage of organs and long waiting times for pediatric patients with end-stage liver disease, stimulated the development of living donor liver transplantation. In 1989, the first living donor liver transplant was performed in the U.S. between a mother and her child, who had irreversible liver damage. Since that time, thousands of children and adults have received living donor liver transplants, with outcomes comparable to deceased donation.

Click here for more information on living liver donation.

For more information on liver disease please go to www.liver.ca.

Who Can Donate?

Selecting the right donor for a living donor liver transplant requires experience, skill and technical expertise on the part of the many doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who make up the liver transplant team. As a result, adult living donor liver transplantation is considered one of the most challenging procedures in modern medicine.

A potential donor must

• Be in good overall health and physical condition
• Be older than 18 years of age and younger than 60 years of age
• Have a liver that is the right size for the recipient
• Have a blood type compatible with the recipient
• Have a near normal body weight (body mass index less than 35)

A potential donor must be free from

• HIV infection
• Known viral hepatitis
• Active alcoholism with frequent and heavy alcohol intake
• Psychiatric illness
• A history of cancer
• Heart and lung disease requiring medication
• Diabetes
• A history of previous liver surgery

Making the Decision

The decision about whether or not to become a living liver donor is a complex one and it is important that you discuss it with the transplant team, a living donation coordinator, as well as with the recipient and the families involved.

The transplant team determines whether or not you are mentally, emotionally and physically fit to become a donor but ultimately, the final decision rests with you. The good news is that the evaluation process takes place in stages, leaving time between appointments for a donor to discuss any questions or concerns as they arise. If at any time you decide that donating is not for you, you should inform your contact on the transplant team right away. Even after a potential donor is accepted for living liver organ donation and surgery is scheduled, he or she has the option of opting out as a living donor at any time right up until the day of surgery.

Making the decision to become a living liver transplant donor is difficult and must be considered very carefully. However, living liver transplant donors say the experience was one of the most rewarding they have ever had.

What to Expect After Living Liver Donation

Most donors are in the hospital for 5-10 days and experience pain and discomfort for about 4-6 weeks after surgery, particularly during the first week. A living liver transplant donor needs time to rest and recover from surgery and it is recommended that 8-10 weeks be allowed for this before returning to work.

Barring any post-operative complications, the living liver donor can expect to return to a completely normal life within 2-3 months of surgery and to remain healthy for the rest of his or her natural life. Since the procedure of living donor liver transplantation is fairly new, statistics on the long-term follow-up of donors who have undergone this surgery are not yet available.

The procedure is major surgery, so monitoring in the immediate post-operative period is very important. Ten days after surgery, a checkup is scheduled and staples are removed. There may be another check-up one month after surgery and then a final checkup at about three months during which a physical exam is conducted by a hepatologist, basic blood tests done and an ultrasound to check liver anatomy. After this, an annual physical exam by the primary care physician is recommended for all living liver donors.

Click here for our complete Living Liver Donation information package.

Click here to view Frequently Asked Questions about living liver donation.