A liver transplantation is a surgical operation in which the deceased person’s liver or a part of liver from the living donor is placed into patient whose liver has ceased to function.

Liver transplantation is a surgical procedure performed to replace a diseased liver with a healthy liver of another person. It is a viable therapeutic option for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure. The liver is the second major organ that commonly transplanted, after the kidney.

Most donated livers come from deceased donors. They come from registered organ donors or from people whose next of kin consents to them becoming donors. Less frequently, liver transplants involve a living donor, often a friend, family member or stranger whose tissue matches with the recipient and they donate a segment of their liver.

Generally, surgeons only perform a liver transplant when all other treatment options have been closed. Nevertheless, liver transplants are the second most common type of transplant after kidney transplants.

Liver Transplant Procedure

For someone undergoing “liver transplantation”, the following sequence of events takes place in an operating room:

• An incision (a cut or mark incur after surgery).

• Testing or evaluation of the abdomen to check abnormalities in a liver.

• Anatomization of the liver attachments to the abdominal cavity.

•Isolation of significant structures like vena cava, common bile duct, portal vein, and the hepatic artery.

• Transection and removal of the damaged or diseased liver.

• Patching or sewing in the new liver with other organs of the body.

• Ensuring and controlling bleeding from the body.

• Cessation of the incision.

The expense of liver transplant surgery may vary according to the following factors:

• Patient’s age

• The Health of the Patient

• State of the organ

• Type of the Surgery

Risks and potential complications

A liver transplant is a major surgery that comes with several risks and potential complications, ranging in severity and including:

• Scarring

• Death

• Blood clots in the hepatic artery that supplies blood to the liver

• Organ rejection, where the body does not accept the donor liver (most common during the first 3 to 6 months after surgery)

• Bleeding

• Bacterial infection

• Failure of the donor's liver

• Bile duct leakage or damage

• Hernia

• Lung failure

• Rupturing of the cuts made in surgery during healing

• Multiple organ failures

• Sepsis

In India, a large number of patients are in need of the donated organs of some other person to continue their lives. The requirement for the organ transplantation can only be fulfilled by the process of ‘organ donation’. But still, the rate of organ donors in our country is very less in comparison to organ recipients. Be the real hero of your nation and contribute to the society by taking a pledge for donating your precious organs to someone who needs it very seriously.

If you’re interested in becoming a donor, please register your wish.

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