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Risks
By Mayo Clinic staffLiver transplant surgery carries a risk of significant complications, including:
- Bile duct complications, including bile duct leaks or shrinking of the bile ducts
- Bleeding
- Blood clots
- Failure of donated liver
- Infection
- Memory and thinking problems
- Rejection of donated liver
Side effects of anti-rejection medications
After a liver transplant you'll take medications for the rest of your life to help prevent your body from rejecting the donor liver. These medications can cause a variety of side effects, including:
- Bone thinning
- Diabetes
- Diarrhea
- Headaches
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Nausea
- 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.
