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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.
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