Study: Complications "Relatively Common" for Living Liver Donors

Complications, including some that are serious, are "relatively common" for the donor in adult-to-adult living-donor liver transplants, and occur more frequently at transplant centers performing few of these complex surgeries, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The report, based on a study of 449 adult-to-adult transplantations of partial livers from living donors that were performed from 1997 through late 2000 in 42 centers, provided little fresh information on this controversial but rapidly expanding procedure.

Significantly more of these living-donor liver transplants have been performed during the past two years than during the earlier period covered by the study, and the death of a donor last year at Mount Sinia Hospital in New York focused attention on the risks involved for donors.

But while the study concluded that the risk of donor death "is probably less than people thought," it found that about one in seven donors suffered a complication, with more than half of these needing rehospitalization.

Bile leakage from the cut edge of the donor's liver was the most common problem, the researchers reported.

"Complications in the donor were more frequent in the centers performing the fewest transplantations from living donors," the researchers added.

While liver transplant surgeons generally found the study a useful effort to quantify the complication rate, they noted that the researchers relied on transplant centers to self-report complications, and pointed out that almost one-third of the U.S. liver transplant centers -- mostly smaller ones -- did not respond to the questionaire.

Other Sources: New England Journal of Medicine