Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
A liver transplant is a surgical procedure to remove a diseased liver and replace it with a healthy liver from a donor. Most liver transplant operations use livers from deceased donors, though a liver may also come from a living donor.
The number of people waiting for new livers is much larger than the number of available livers, so liver transplant is reserved for people who are critically ill. Some people will receive a liver right away, while others spend many months waiting for a liver transplant.
About 6,000 liver transplant operations are performed in the United States each year, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network.
Why it's done
References
- Rudow DL, et al. Critical care management of the liver transplant recipient. Critical Care Nursing Quarterly. 2008;31:232.
- Liver transplant. American Liver Foundation. http://www.liverfoundation.org/education/info/transplant/. Accessed Oct. 21, 2008.
- What I need to know about liver transplantation. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://digestive.nddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/livertransplant_ez/. Accessed Oct. 21, 2008.
- Koffron A, et al. Liver transplantation: Indications, pretransplant evaluation, surgery, and posttransplant complications. The Medical Clinics of North America. 2008;92:861.
- Arora G, et al. Management of chronic liver failure until liver transplantation. The Medical Clinics of North America. 2008;92:839.
- Brown RS. Live donors in liver transplantation. Gastroenterology. 2008;134:1802.
- O'Leary JG, et al. Indications for liver transplant. Gastroenterology. 2008;134:1764.
- Removal reasons by year. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. http://www.optn.org/data/. Accessed Oct. 23, 2008.
- Transplants by donor type. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. http://www.optn.org/data/. Accessed Oct. 23, 2008.
- Liver Kaplan-Meier patient survival rates for transplants performed: 1997-2004. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. http://www.optn.org/data/. Accessed Oct. 23, 2008.
