Split Liver Transplant Can Save Two Lives with One Donor Liver

Thousands of deaths occur every year all across the globe while waiting for a liver transplant. Even in the best liver hospital in India, there’s always a high demand for the right donor that can help save the life of a patient critically in need of it.

A split liver transplant could help to lower these numbers by reducing recipients’ wait times, increasing the number of available livers, and saving two lives with one donor organ. There are a few places for split liver transplant in India and is done under the supervision of highly trained doctors.

What is a Split Liver Transplant?

A split liver transplant, also known as a half graft, involves dividing a liver from a deceased adult donor between two recipients. The right lobe can be transplanted into most adults, while the left lobe, which is about the same size as a liver in a baby or young child, can be transplanted into a child. After a few weeks, the partial grafts will expand to their full size.

Is It Possible to Use All Donor Livers in Split Liver Transplants?

It is not possible to split all donor’s livers. Splittable livers are usually obtained from younger donors with normal vascular anatomy and minimal liver fat. The blood arteries between the right and left lobes must be divided by surgeons. Blood clots in several small arteries are more likely if there are many minor branches.

How Are Split Livers Allocated?

The highest-priority patient on the national queue is offered a donor’s liver. The liver will be too large for the child if the donor is an adult or a large adolescent and the receiver is a child. Generally, the liver is split at the recipient centre. The left lobe is given to the child, while the right lobe is given to an adult at the same centre, if possible, or to the next patient on the list.

The liver is split at the donor site in some situations, although this requires a high level of technical knowledge and takes longer. It necessitates dispatching a fully qualified surgeon to the donor hospital and having a second surgeon prepared to begin the transplant at the recipient facility, requiring extra resources.

Why Would a Child Need a Liver Transplant?

There are a variety of reasons why a child might require a liver transplant, all of which are luckily uncommon. Biliary atresia, a disorder of the liver and bile ducts that affects children, is the most common cause. When the bile ducts do not mature properly, bile flow from the liver to the gallbladder becomes clogged. This causes bile to become stuck inside the liver, causing damage to liver cells and eventually liver failure. Infections, severe drug reactions, autoimmune diseases, and uncommon metabolic diseases are among the other causes.

The Number of Child Deaths Is More Than Adults While Waiting for a Liver Donor. Can Split Liver Transplants Save This?

Yes. Because there are fewer paediatric donors than there are paediatric receivers on the waiting list for a liver transplant, the mortality rate for children on the waiting list is high: and, at least 8% to 10% of children on the waiting list cannot survive the condition. Infants on the waiting list have a higher percentage. This mismatch is particularly troublesome in transplant clinics that only accept complete organs and do not do partial grafts. They must wait for a donor with a liver that is the same size as the recipient’s, which extends the time it takes for their patients to find a suitable donor.

Could Increasing the Number of Split Liver Transplants Save More Lives?

Did you know, in 2015 in Italy, there was a law passed stating all livers from deceased donors will be allocated for split transplants. And with this law, the number of patients undergoing partial grafts saw a huge increase in the number and about 50% in the mortality rate.

That said, split liver recipients do not need to take any additional precautions. Split liver transplant recipients have the same long-term survival rate as whole liver transplant recipients.