Study: Livers of Donors Do Not Totally Regenerate Within Weeks

A new study has found that contrary to widespread belief, a living donor's liver does not grow back to its original size within weeks after surgery -- and in fact only reaches a little more than 80 percent of its original volume by the end of a year.

While the donors, despite the much slower rate of liver regeneration, all had normal liver function, the findings -- reported at the 19th International Congress of The Transplantation Society -- still have significant implications for post-operative care.

For one thing, liver donors generally are advised to abstain from alcohol or not take birth control pills during the period while their liver is regenerating. That period, it now turns out, is not a matter of a few weeks.

Dr. Elizabeth Pomfret, director of Live Donor Liver Transplantation at the Lahey Clinic, said researchers at her center made the discovery about the rate of liver regeneration by performing CT scans on 51 donors prior to surgery, then one week, one month, three months, six months and a year after they had approximately 60 percent of their livers removed.

She said that while the portion of livers transplanted into recipients does indeed regenerate at a rapid rate, often reaching 90 percent of full volume in the first week, the portion that remained in female donors had only reached 80 percent of original volume at the end of one year with the livers of male donors attaining a slightly higher 87 percent.

Whether the livers of these donors will ever achieve their original volume remains to be seen, Pomfret said.

"It doesn't appear to matter in the early post-operative period, but it is not clear whether or not that will make a difference to the donor 10 years from now," said Pomfret. "That is totally unknown at this point."

Other sources: 19th International Congress of The Transplantation Society