| The initial approach to any liver disease and/ or damage is medical treatment. The liver has an amazing ability to regenerate but extensive damage to the liver caused by some conditions is irreversible. Damage to the liver can seriously affect the absorption of vitamins and nutrients, prevent waste products from being effectively removed from the system, and reduce the production of proteins needed to clot the blood. If the treatment/ therapy have been proven unsuccessful and the liver no longer is able to function, a liver transplant remains the only option. A transplant provides a patient with a liver that can keep up with the demands of a full, active life. According to international guidelines, any patient suffering from liver failure who is assessed to have a life expectancy of less than a year should be considered for a transplant. Severity of liver disease is graded from A to C. Usually all Grade C and most grade B patients are candidates for transplant.Liver failure can occur suddenly as a result of infection or complications from certain medications or it can be the end result of a long-term progressive liver disease, such as : |
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- Chronic hepatitis B & C
- Liver cirrhosis (where healthy liver cells die and are replaced with scarred liver tissue)
- Primary biliary cirrhosis (a rare condition where the immune system inappropriately attacks and destroys the bile ducts)
- Sclerosing cholangitis (scarring and narrowing of the bile ducts inside and outside of the liver causing the backup of bile in the liver)
- Biliary atresia (malformation of the bile ducts in infants)
- Alcoholism
- Wilson's disease (a rare inherited disease with abnormal deposition of copper throughout the body, including the liver)
- Hemochromatosis (a hereditary disease where the body is overloaded with iron)
- Amyloidosis (abnormal deposits of an abnormal protein called amyloid on the liver that disrupts normal liver function)
- Liver cancer
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| Any patient with any of the liver failure symptoms listed below should seek specialist opinion so that liver experts can assess whether a transplant or drug treatment is more suitable for them. In any case, the better the condition of the patient at the time of transplant, the better are the results of surgery. In patients who are critically ill in ICU, malnourished, have active infection or other organ damage such as kidney impairment at the time of the operation, the results of transplantation are dismal. Therefore, timely transplant is of essence in obtaining good results. A timely transplant done on a patient who is in a reasonable condition, with a good donor liver has around 80%-90% chance of success. |
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| Symptoms of liver failure due to cirrhosis |
- Black stool
- Blood vomiting
- Water in the abdomen (ascites)
- Drowsiness and mental confusion
- Excessive bleeding from minor wounds
- Jaundice
- Kidney dysfunction
- Excessive tiredness
- Low hemoglobin and other blood counts
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The Liver is the largest organ in the body which is divided into right lobe and the left lobe. Liver has a tremendous capacity to regenerate, means if we remove a portion of healthy liver than it would regrow in two to three months. About 75% of the liver can be removed from a normal-healthy liver and a person can survive with remaining 25% liver which regenerates. Living Donor Liver Transplantation involves a very complex procedure where 4 to 5 fine blood vessels and bile duct of the new liver is connected to the body. |
