Chances and Risks in Living Donor Liver Transplantation

Introduction: Liver transplantation is the first-line therapy in treatment of end-stage liver diseases. Due to the mismatch of available donor organs and growing waiting lists in Germany, live donation is of great interest. Methods: Selective literature review. Results and discussion: Pediatric living donor liver transplantation almost eliminated waiting list mortality in children and achieved excellent short and long term survival. The situation in adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation is different, due to the need for extensive donor resection and smaller graft volume for the recipient. Careful donor evaluation and defined selection criteria are essential to minimize the donor's risk and to achieve results comparable to whole organ transplantation. Living donor liver transplantation offers the recipient certain advantages such as superior graft quality, but the procedure should be reserved for selected patients. Donor safety is the highest priority in this procedure. Living donor transplantation should remain in the hands of experienced centers. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105(6): 101-7 DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2008.0101