NY Panel Adopts Plan for Regulation of Living-Donor Liver Transplants

A New York state committee has adopted a proposal to toughen regulations on living-donor liver transplants and require that hospitals create an independent donor advocate team to inform potential donors about the risks of the surgery.

The proposals, unanimously adopted by the state Committee on Quality Improvement in Living Liver Donation, also establish an upper age limit of 55 for potential donors (see earlier Transplant Week story).

The recommendations still need to be reviewed by the state's Transplant Council in December before the state health department commissioner puts the new rules into effect.

"No other state has looked at this issue in such depth," Health Commissioner Antonia Novello told the panel of transplant experts. "...These recommendations speak clearly that the health and safety of the donor must be the highest priority."

The recommendations are expected to be considered by the U.S. Department of Health's Advisory Committee on Transplantation when it meets next week. Executive director Jack Kress, who attended meetings of the New York panel, said he expects proposed national guidelines to mirror New York's on a number of points.

"We're going to present this as a model everybody should be following," said Kress.

The New York panel was created following the January death of liver donor Michael Hurewitz, 57, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City (see earlier Transplant Week story). A state investigation of Mount Sinai's care of Hurewitz has led to more than $100,000 in fines and an indefinite suspension of the hospital's adult-to-adult liver transplant program.

Other sources: New York Department of Health, Albany Times Union