You cannot drink alcohol for a full year after surgery to allow your liver to recover. You will also be required to visit the hospital and lab repeatedly. You will gradually be able to return to your normal activities as you recover.
Alcohol use may not preclude you from being a donor, but you may need a liver biopsy to be sure your liver has not sustained any damage. You should not resume drinking alcohol after surgery until advised to do so by the transplant team.
Most donors will not feel 100 percent normal for up to four-six months. During the first six months, you are very strongly encouraged to avoid alcohol and any medications or herbal remedies that can be toxic to the liver.
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.
Excess weight gain is common after liver transplantation. Maximum weight gain occurs in the first six months after transplant.
Relapse to “harmful drinking” has been reported in 8%-21% of LT recipients[7,8,29-31]. Occasional drinks “slips”, may not cause a significant graft damage, but with a history of alcoholism, it would be difficult to predict if these so called “slips”, could end up in complete relapse and harmful alcohol abuse[1,32,33].
Liver transplant can have excellent outcomes. Recipients have been known to live a normal life over 30 years after the operation.
Traditionally, being liver transplant candidate requires “six months of abstinence” from alcohol. However, the so-called “six-month rule” may not save some of life especially in severe ALHep patients.
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%.
Smoking: If you're a light smoker, stop smoking at least one month prior to your liver donation surgery. Because smoking can add risks to surgery, people who smoke heavily do not make ideal organ donors. Alcohol and drugs: Prior to surgery, you must be sober of alcohol and drugs.
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%).
Unfortunately, you will have significant pain after surgery. We will give you pain medication but you will still be very uncomfortable for at least the first week. You will have less pain as each day goes by, but most of our donors have a significant amount of discomfort for two to four weeks after surgery.
Medical Grounds
Alcoholics historically have been considered unsuitable for liver transplantation because of their presumed high risk of relapse to excessive drinking after transplantation.
Alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, which is characterized by severe scarring due to the heavy use of alcohol, is the major cause of end-stage liver disease. For those afflicted with cirrhosis, a liver transplant often offers the only possibility for survival.
Funni has survived for nearly 40 years. … Patients like Patti Funni inspire and give hope to other people facing challenging illness.” So much more hope has been given to others who have had liver transplants through Funni, who used to host “liver parties,” where she'd gather others who had liver transplants.
In general, about 75% of people who undergo liver transplant live for at least five years. That means that for every 100 people who receive a liver transplant for any reason, about 75 will live for five years and 25 will die within five years.
The life expectancy of a Liver Donor:
As much as a person without liver transplant meaning the general population. Now you know that living liver donation has no impact on how long and healthy you will live.
If you donate part of your liver, the rest grows back to most of its original size within weeks. It then continues to grow slowly to reach its full size over the next year. You can give this lifesaving gift to a relative, a friend or even a stranger.
The controversy peaked in the 1990s when celebrities with drinking problems — Larry Hagman, David Crosby and Mickey Mantle — got liver transplants. More recently, British soccer star George Best received a new liver in 2002, started drinking again and died three years later.
To be considered for a liver transplant, you should not smoke or take illegal drugs, and should have stopped drinking alcohol for at least 6 months.
The Liver Transplant Procedure
Your surgeon will make a cut across your abdomen, just below your rib cage.
Three years after surgery, patients who had the liver transplant alone maintained a weight loss of a median of 3.9 percent of their total body weight compared to 34.8 percent for patients who had the transplant and weight-loss surgery.
The age of recipients has steadily increased since the 1980s, from 50 years to more than 60 years10,12 and currently is above 70 years. In our study, this increase in the mean age of LT recipients has occurred gradually from 50.4 years in 2007 to 54.2 years in 2016.