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What is a Liver Transplant?
 The goal of a liver transplant is to provide you with a new functioning human liver that performs the functions that your native (one you were born with) liver is no longer able to do. A successful liver transplant can return you to a state of good health. The liver you receive may come from a living gift from a member of your family or friend or you may receive a liver from someone who has died and donated their liver (deceased donor).
Purpose
Liver transplantation is a surgical procedure that places a healthy liver from another person into your body. Your native liver is completely removed. This new liver does all the work that your native liver used to do.
How it works
Liver transplantation is a difficult surgical procedure to perform. The surgeon makes an incision into the abdomen and removes your diseased liver. The next step is to place the new liver into your body. The surgeon connects the arteries and veins to your own arteries and veins. If the recipient has a normal bile duct, the new bile duct in connected to the patient's own bile duct. A stent (similar to a straw) is placed to prevent any blockages. If the recipient does not have a normal bile duct (those with primary sclerosing cholangitis), the new liver bile duct is connected to the small intestine. The surgery takes six to eight hours for a deceased donor liver transplant. The surgery takes ten to twelve hours for a living donor liver transplant. The hospital stay for either deceased donor or living donor liver transplant is ten to fourteen days.
Where a Liver transplant Comes From
You may receive a liver from:
- A family member. This is called a living related donor.
- A spouse or friend. This is called a living unrelated donor.
- A Good Samaritan. This is a person who is unknown or unrelated to you.
- A person who has recently died. This is called a deceased donor.
Please see more information about living donor liver transplant performed at the Hume-Lee Transplant Center .
A deceased donor liver transplant is where someone is waiting on the transplant list. The United Network for Organ Sharing is the national organization that manages the allocation or distribution of organs. The waiting list has more than 88,000 people in need of all organ transplants and over 17,000 waiting for a liver transplant in the entire United States . Unfortunately, there are more people waiting for transplants than there are organs available to be transplanted. At the Hume-Lee Transplant Center , patients may wait up to two years for a liver transplant (ustransplant.org). These waiting times vary from patient to patient due to individual medical conditions. This is often why more and more people are choosing to have a living donor liver transplant.
Success Rates
We are very proud of our unsurpassed care for our liver transplant recipients at the Hume-Lee Transplant Center . Generally, our survival rates are at or above the national average.
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