You must be either the same blood type as your recipient or blood type "O." Your Rh factor – positive (+) or negative (-) – does not affect your suitability to donate.
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.
Group O can donate red blood cells to anybody. It's the universal donor. Group AB can donate to other AB's but can receive from all others. Group B can donate red blood cells to B's and AB's.
A liver from a living donor also has a longer survival rate. Living-donor liver transplants are more common among children who need a liver transplant than among adults because suitable deceased-donor organs are scarce. Most living liver donors are close family members or friends of the liver transplant candidates.
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%).
Your liver grows back to its normal size in a matter of weeks. The energy resources it uses to do this won't shorten your life. The surgery itself is relatively safe, but there is always a small risk of complications or death. The risk of death to living liver donors is 1 in 500.
Type O positive blood is critical in trauma care. Those with O positive blood can only receive transfusions from O positive or O negative blood types. Type O positive blood is one of the first to run out during a shortage due to its high demand.
Of the eight main blood types, people with Type O have the lowest risk for heart attacks and blood clots in the legs and lungs. This may be because people with other blood types have higher levels of certain clotting factors, which are proteins that cause blood to coagulate (solidify).
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.
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.
Typically, a liver donor spends approximately seven days in the hospital, and will have an additional six to eight weeks of recovery time. Donors who are from out of town (greater than a two-hour drive) should plan on spending an extra two to three weeks in town after they are discharged from the hospital.
Can I be a living donor? If a liver transplant candidate is eligible to receive from a living donor, then a family member, relative or close friend can be considered for donation.
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.
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%.
Theoretically yes, but it would be extremely rare. Two O parents will get an O child nearly all of the time. But as with anything in biology, there are occasional exceptions to this rule.
The authors found that individuals with type O blood were less likely to contract SARS-CoV-2 compared with non–type O blood groups (ARR = 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84–0.92).
O positive is the most common blood type as around 35% of our blood donors have it. The second most common blood type is A positive (30%), while AB negative (1%) is the rarest.
Famous Type O personalities: Queen Elizabeth II, John Lennon or Paul Newman.
Rh-null blood can be accepted by anyone with a rare blood type in the Rh system. “Golden blood” is as rare in reality as it was in ancient Greek mythology: only forty-three people in the world are known to have had this blood type.
O− blood, also called "universal donor," is perhaps the most valuable blood in the world because it can be transfused to nearly any blood type (except when the person has some rare antigen outside of the main ones).
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.
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.