Things You Should Know Before Donating Liver For Liver Transplant


Liver transplantation is a surgery to remove the diseased liver of the patient and place a part or whole healthy liver from a donor.
This can be a life-saving operation for people with end-stage liver failure that cannot be managed using other treatment methods, or for some specific types of liver cancer.
A healthy liver can be received from two sources: a deceased person or a living person.
Living donor liver transplant entails the removal of a part of the donor’s healthy liver for transplantation into a recipient with a deceased liver.
Usually, a family member or a person who is emotionally close to the patient can volunteer to donate a portion of their healthy liver for transplant surgery. This procedure is possible because of the liver’s unique ability to regenerate itself.
After the transplantation surgery, the portion of livers in both the donor and recipient grows in size (usually in four months) to form complete organs. An adult can donate a part of his/her liver to a child or another adult.
The number of people waiting for a donor’s liver exceeds the number of deceased donors available. The living donor liver transplant, much like living kidney donation, provides an effective alternative to waiting for the availability of a deceased donor organ.
Moreover, receiving a transplant sooner may, in fact, help the recipient avoid other health complications that may occur due to the long waiting times.
Another major advantage of living liver donation over deceased liver donation is an improved survival rate for transplant recipients.
A living-donor undergoes a careful medical evaluation to assess the health and condition of the liver for transplantation into a recipient. Livers from living donors are immediately transplanted after being extracted from the donor.
The short ischemia cold time (the amount of time the liver is without blood and is artificially preserved) is also an important reason behind the excellent success rates of living donor liver transplantation.
With living-donor transplantation, the timing of the transplant operation can be planned and the progression of the recipient’s liver disease and its life-threatening complications can be avoided.
The government and the transplant centers have organ transplantation guidelines about who can a suitable donor of an organ. The potential donors must fulfill all the necessary requirements to be considered for living donor transplants.
Low-Cost Liver Transplant in India is globally renowned for its excellent results and long term success rates. Living donor liver transplantation is offered by many of the top hospitals in India.
Some of the liver transplant programs in the country are considered to be amongst the best ones in the world. These transplant centers follow international and national rules for organ transplantation surgery.
One must meet the following criteria to be a live donor for a liver transplant:
The Rh factor (positive or negative) doesn’t play a role incompatibility.
the physical and mental health of the patient must be good for being able to donate. The person should not have any of the following conditions:
A donor must not smoke for at least six weeks prior to surgery.
Living donors also need a strong support system to rely on for emotional and physical needs during recovery.
Once the blood type is matched, a detailed medical analysis is carried out to check the overall health of the person. The family medical history, lifestyle and other information is noted by the doctor and assessed. A series of tests are done including: