Live Donor Adult Liver Transplantation Using Right Lobe Grafts

Abstract

LIVE DONOR LIVER transplantation was first initiated in children in 1989 in response to the severe shortage of pediatric organ donors.^1,2 Improvements in surgical technique resulted in superior survival compared with cadaveric transplantations.^3,4 The expansion of live donor liver transplantation to the adult population initially began in countries where the availability of cadaveric donors was scarce and in some cases totally unavailable.^5-7 Severe shortages of cadaveric organs along with the exponential growth in the number of patients with cirrhosis secondary to the epidemic of hepatitis C have resulted in an increasing acceptance of live donor adult liver transplantation (LDALT) in Europe and the United States.^8,9