Living Donor Liver Transplant Increases Survival Rate in Patients: Study

Patients who receive liver from living donors have high chances of survival than recipients who have deceased donor liver transplants, suggests a study.

Experts at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania looked at national records on organ transplant and procurement conducted between 2002 and 2012 to note recovery rates in patients who received livers of deceased and living donors. A total of 2,103 living donor transplants and 46,674 deceased donor transplants were carried out during the entire trial period. It was observed the odds of living after three years post transplant surgery was 78 percent for recipients who had the liver of a deceased donor and 83 percent for those with live donor transplant. The survival rate after five years for both groups was 71 and 78 percent, respectively.

The findings also revealed that living donor transplants particularly benefited patients suffering from chronic liver diseases like autoimmune hepatitis and cholestatic liver disease. A past clinical trial holds that organs of deceased individuals are mostly preferable for transplantation procedures. The current research can prove extremely helpful in planning and preparing for organ transplants as well as predicting its outcomes on patient's health.

"With a scarcity of organs and an ever growing need, living donor transplants are underused and can alleviate long transplant wait lists while decreasing waiting list mortality, with outcomes that can be as good, and when performed at an experienced center, potentially better for living donor recipients. Every year 20 to 30 percent of patients die waiting for a new liver," said David  Goldberg, study author and researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine, in a news release.

The authors urge doctors and patients to consider living donor transplants, which so far account for only three to four percent of liver transplants performed in U.S.

"We expect to see a renewed focus on these as surgical techniques and surgical experience with living donor transplants continues to increase, mortality rates improve and greater evidence exists showing the benefit of living donor liver transplant surgeries," added Goldberg.

More information is available online in the journal Hepatology.