Number of Patients Dying on Liver Transplant Waiting List Decreases

The number of patients who died while waiting for a liver transplant decreased by 23 percent in the first year after the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) implemented a new formula for prioritizing patients for transplantation.

Dr. Richard Freeman of Tufts University told attendees at the UNOS' 11th Transplant Management Forum that since implementation of the so-called MELD/PELD formula in February 2002, the most urgent patients have been getting liver transplants more quickly.

The new formula still gives top priority to those patients whose doctors believe they will die within a week without a liver transplant, and issues a precise score to all other patients on the basis of medical tests that calculate their short-term risk of death without transplantation. This formula replaced the old system that emphasized the amount of time a patient had spent on the waiting list.

Freeman said that since adoption of the new formla, the number of patients requiring a retransplant has begun to fall as expected. He said the one-year survival rate for patients being transplanted under the new formula is approximately 85 percent.

A complete report on results since adoption of the MELD/PELD formula is scheduled to be presented at the joint scientific meeting of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons May 30th to June 4th in Washington, DC.

Other Sources: UNOS