A 47-year-old wife demonstrated her love for her 49-year-old husband on Valentine's Day by donating part of her liver and saving his life. The couple Sakshi and Rakesh (names changed), hailing from Gwalior, underwent a living donor liver transplant at Aster RV Hospital.
You can give this lifesaving gift to a relative, a friend or even a stranger. Thousands of people in the United States are waiting for a liver from a deceased donor – but patients with a living donor have a much shorter wait time and a better chance for a successful liver transplant.
Living donation is possible because the liver is the only organ that can regenerate itself. An adult may be able to donate a portion of their liver to a child or another adult.
Livers from female donors yielded significantly poorer results, with 2-year graft survival of female to male 55% (95% CI, 45% to 67%); female to female, 64% (95% CI, 54% to 77%); male to male, 72% (95% CI, 66% to 78%); and male to female, 78% (95% CI, 70% to 88%).
Who can donate? Most often living liver donors are a close relative of the recipient, such as a family member, partner or good friend. However, people who do not know anyone with liver disease, but who wish to donate, can also provide part of their liver for someone on the transplant list.
We will obtain blood tests, a chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram (EKG), and an ultrasound of the abdomen. If these tests suggest that you could be a donor, a CT scan of the abdomen will be performed to make sure that your liver is big enough to donate a piece.
You don't have to be related to someone to donate a lobe of your liver. In fact, you can donate to family and even friends as long as you have a close emotional connection with your recipient.
DONOR AND RECIPIENT AGE AND GENDER: IMPACT ON OUTCOMES OF LIVER TRANSPLANTATION. A recent study confirmed that recipients of gender-mismatched grafts had an 11% higher risk of graft loss.
You may be disqualified from having a liver transplant if you have: Current alcohol or drug abuse problems. Uncontrolled infection that will not go away with a transplant. Metastatic cancer or bile duct cancer.
Many living liver donors return to work on a part-time basis as early as four to six weeks after surgery. Heavy lifting or strenuous physical activity is restricted for six weeks and until the donor is cleared to do so. Returning to full-time work may take up to two months, depending on the nature of the donor's work.
You don't have to have the exact blood type as the person who needs a new liver, but you need to be what's called "compatible." This can be figured out with a simple blood test.
People with higher MELD scores are generally offered donated livers first. Time spent on the liver transplant waiting list is used to break ties among people with the same MELD scores and blood types. Some liver conditions, such as liver cancer, may not result in a person getting a high MELD score.
Liver transplant can have excellent outcomes. Recipients have been known to live a normal life over 30 years after the operation.
How Long Does It Take for a Liver to Regenerate After Donation? In a few months after surgery, your liver will regenerate back to its full size, and return to your pre-donation level of health. The other person's new liver will grow to full size as well, leaving both people with healthy, functioning livers.
Advancing age, sarcopenia, acute on chronic liver failure, and non-liver-related medical co-morbidities are common conditions that arise while on the wait-list that can render a patient too sick for transplant.
Avoid alcohol
If your liver transplant was due to an alcohol-related disease, you must never drink alcohol again as you risk harming your transplanted liver. This also applies if alcohol was thought to have contributed to your liver disease, even if it was not the main cause.
Patient recall of abstinence advice is unreliable, and patients return to alcohol mainly within the first year after liver transplantation. Return to alcohol consumption after liver transplantation is associated with rapid development of histological liver injury including fibrosis.
Waiting time for your liver transplant can vary from a single day to months or years, until a suitable donor is available. While waiting for a transplant, you will return to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for regular follow-ups (usually monthly).
Liver regeneration makes living donor liver transplantation possible. A person can donate a portion of his or her liver – up to 60 percent of it – to be transplanted into another person.
Rejection happens in up to 30 in 100 patients. The risk of rejection is highest in the first 6 months after a transplant. After this time, your body's immune system is less likely to recognise the liver as coming from another person. Chronic rejection happens in 2 in 100 patients.
Liver transplants are generally very successful and most people are eventually able to return to their normal activities afterwards. It can take a year or more to fully recover.
Is there an age limit to becoming an organ donor? No: There is no age limit for donation or to sign up. In 2021, one out of every three people who donated organs was over the age of 50.
Although mortality has traditionally been estimated at 1 in 250 for living donation, a more recent survey found a 1 in 1,000 chance of death among liver donors at experienced centers, and a morbidity rate of approximately 30%.
Reimbursement up to $2,000/week for up to 6 weeks.