Live Liver Transplants And Organ Regeneration

People who donate part of their livers for transplantation regain normal liver function within a couple weeks, a new study indicates.

Researchers say their finding that the donor's liver regenerates quickly is important and supports the practice of using live donors to ease the shortage of transplantable livers.

Mitsuru Nakatsuka, M.D., of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, says his study supports the safety of using live donors to ease the liver shortage.

About 16,000 Americans currently are waiting for liver transplants. However, only about 5,000 livers from deceased donors will become available this year.

The procedure for removing a portion of liver from a live donor for transplant was developed about 2 years ago. It is a difficult procedure that requires exacting attention to the amount of liver tissue transplanted into the recipient's body.

Dr. Nakatsuka and colleagues recorded the length of hospital stay and details about the recovery of 31 donors and 31 recipients of adult-to-adult liver transplants done at the Medical College between June 1998 and June 1999.

The researchers also observed the rate of liver regeneration of the donors and the recipients.

"Most of the regeneration process of the liver takes place in the first week and is back to near normal size in two weeks in both donors and recipients..." the researchers conclude.

The donors in the study were released from the hospital after an average of 5 days without complications or a stay in the intensive care unit.

Recipients in the study typically spent time in the intensive care unit before going home an average of 14 days later. Ninety percent were alive 2 years later.

Dr. Nakatsuka presented the findings at the American Society of Anesthesiologists' annual meeting in San Francisco on Oct. 16. He adds that the researchers have seen similar results in 24 more patients not included in the study.

Russell H. Wiesner, M.D., an internist and medical director of the liver transplantation program at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., says the use of livers from live donors will help reduce the waiting time for transplantable livers - currently about 2 years.

"This procedure probably will save several hundred patients who would not be able to get a cadaver liver because of the long waiting time," Dr. Wiesner says.

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This article posted November 3, 2000.

Live Liver Transplants And Organ Regeneration

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