Ninety-six per cent of children who have received liver transplants from living relations are still alive five years after surgery, according to research published in the July issue of the British Journal of Surgery.

Can split liver transplantation reliably yield grafts for two adults? Experts consider this question alongside new findings about the procedure in the July issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal by John Wiley & Sons.

Nearly 9 percent of patients who recently underwent liver transplantation suffered a subsequent surgical site infection (SSI). Risk factors included having had biliary-enteric anastomosis (choledocho-jejunal or hepatic-jejunal reconstruction), previous liver or kidney transplant, and more than four red blood cell units transfused.

Chronic liver disease patients often have low systemic vascular resistance that causes low blood pressure before liver transplant, but after receiving a new liver, they may suffer post-operative heart problems that leave the left ventricle unable to pump out an adequate amount of blood. This situation puts patients at a greater risk of organ failure and death.

Parents of pediatric liver transplant recipients report lower health-related quality of life for their children two years after the surgery, compared to reports from the parents of healthy children. However, reports of family dysfunction fall within the normal range.

The University of Alberta Hospital (UAH) is one of only a few centers in Canada that perform living donor liver transplantation, a surgical procedure developed in the late 1980s that expands the organ donor pool. About 80 liver transplants are done a year in Alberta, 10 of those being living-donor.

Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is associated with severe bleeding and considerable transfusion requirements. There are several reasons for this severe bleeding in OLT. Hemostatic abnormalities remain a major cause.

One-year survival rates for patients receiving heart, liver and lung transplants at UCSF Medical Center exceed national averages at statistically significant levels, according to new data compiled by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR).

Liver transplant is a life saving treatment option for people with end-stage liver disease. Unfortunately, the need for donor livers far exceeds the supply. Each year only about one-third of people who need a donor liver will receive one, and some patients die while waiting.

Patients with high BMIs experience a significant survival benefit from liver transplantation and had similar rates of mortality after transplant compared to patients with normal BMI.

Almost all adult recipients who undergo LDLT develop liver cirrhosis with long-term portal hypertension. Portal hypertension results in vascular dilatation and collateral pathways.

Patients awaiting liver transplantation who also suffer from other medical problems may face poorer survival after transplantation. These comorbid problems, which include coronary disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), connective tissue disease and renal insufficiency, have been incorporated into a new modified comorbidity index which helps predict post-transplant survival.