  
Right lobe transplant from living donor improves survival in acute liver failure
Last Updated: 2001-03-08 16:41:03 EST (Reuters Health)
HONG KONG (Reuters Health) - Right-lobe living-donor liver transplantation has improved the overall survival rate of patients with acute liver failure in a region where cadaveric grafts are in short supply.
"If families were more decisive about donation, survival rates could be improved further," Dr. Sheung-tat Fan commented at the University of Hong Kong's Center for Liver Disease second annual meeting.
Dr. Fan and his colleagues, from the University of Hong Kong, retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of 8 patients with fulminant hepatic failure and 35 patients with acute hepatitis B infection deemed not salvageable without liver transplantation. All patients received treatment at the University of Hong Kong between January 1999 and December 2000.
Although volunteer donors were available for 28 patients (65%), only 16 patients received living-donor liver transplants. The researchers explained that during the donor evaluation period, 2 patients received cadaveric grafts and 10 patients deteriorated rapidly and were no longer eligible for liver transplantation.
For the 15 patients without volunteer donors, only one cadaveric graft became available.
Dr. Fan said that the transplant rate was significantly higher in the living-donor group than in the group waiting for a cadaveric transplant, 64% versus 6%. The overall survival rate at 1 year was 50% among patients who received living-donor livers compared with 6% in the cadaver-donor group. There were no deaths among donors.
Four patients who received living-donor transplants died of acute necrotizing pancreatitis, Legionnaires' disease, leakage from bilioenteric anastomosis or primary graft dysfunction.
-Westport Newsroom 203 319 2700
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