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At the Ochsner Transplant Institute, we encourage patients and their families to consider living donor liver transplantation. Ochsner Health is home to the only living donor liver program in Louisiana. More than 1,400 lives are lost every year in America because there simply aren’t enough livers for everyone who needs one. Living liver donor transplants saves lives faster.
A living donor liver transplantation is a surgery that removes a diseased or malfunctioning liver and replaces it with a portion of a healthy liver from a living donor. Liver regeneration allows the partial livers of the donor and the recipient to grow into complete organs. It truly is the gift of life and offers several benefits:
Shorter Wait Times: If you have a living donor, you don’t have to wait as long, even if you have a low model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score. A shorter wait time can reduce the risk of death while waiting on the deceased donor list. Use this waiting list outcome tool to help calculate your potential wait time.
Faster Recovery: Living donor recipients experience shorter hospital stays and are less likely to require blood transfusions or dialysis after surgery.
Improved Outcomes: According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, recipients of living donor livers have an average of five percent better long-term survival rates than recipients of deceased donor livers.
The Ochsner Transplant Institute has performed more than 3,000 adult and pediatric liver transplants. We’re currently home to Louisiana’s only active pediatric liver transplant program. Our program is ranked among the top programs in the country for quality every year.
Ochsner surgeons take on some of the most difficult cases, including re-transplantation, transplant of obese recipients and transplantation of patients with portal vein thrombosis. Our surgeons are experienced in split liver transplants, reduced-size liver transplants and living donor liver transplantation in both adults and children.
Throughout the living-donor liver donation process, you will interact with our liver transplant team of transplant hepatologists, liver transplant surgeons, living-donor liver coordinator, living-donor advocate, transplant social workers, nutritionists and financial advisors.
If you’d like to be contacted about this program, fill out the Living Donor Liver contact form below or call us at 504-842-3925. You may also email us at LivingLiverTrans@ochsner.org.
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The Ochsner Transplant Institute is here to support our potential and current living liver donors. If you’re considering becoming a living donor, it’s important to learn as much as you can. Our number one priority in living donation is the health and safety of the donor. The careful evaluation process is designed to ensure appropriate selection of donors and a safe surgery for both the donor and recipient.
Being a living donor doesn’t mean you won’t have a complete liver. In fact, liver regeneration allows the partial liver of the donor to regrow into a complete organ. In approximately three months, the remaining part of your liver will grow back to its normal size. Even on the day of surgery, the remaining volume of liver is enough for normal function.
A living donor does not need to be related to the recipient to donate. The Ochsner Living Donor Transplant team understands that every transplant is different and is here to provide support every step of the way. Restoring health to a close friend or family member needing a new liver is a priceless gift.
A healthy donor must:
The Living Donor Transplant team understands that every transplant is different, and they will be there with you every step of the way. We recommend you speak to your primary care physician, family, friends and the transplant candidate about becoming a living donor.
These tests are to make sure you are healthy and that your liver function is normal or near normal. Once we review your test results, we will decide if you can donate.
The insurance of the person needing the liver transplant pays for the donor’s:
**Note: Travel and time off from work are not paid for by insurance.
We will assign an independent living-donor advocate who will act on your behalf. Your living-donor advocate will:
If you are approved as a living donor, you will work with the transplant team to schedule a date for your transplant. Once the surgery is scheduled, you and your recipient will come for an appointment the day before surgery. You and your recipient will meet in the same room, at the same time, along with your family or loved ones. This appointment will last about one to two hours.
The transplant surgeon will:
Once this appointment is over, you will leave and will come back to be admitted early in the morning on the day of surgery.
Living donor liver surgery may differ depending on if the recipient is a child or an adult. Donation to a child involves the removal of the smaller left lobe of the liver while donating to an adult usually requires the removal of a portion of the larger right lobe.
The entire living liver donor surgery will take five to seven hours.
The surgery requires general anesthesia and abdominal incision. During the operation, the liver is freed up and the major blood vessels supplying the liver lobes are isolated. The liver tissue is then carefully split into two pieces. After the liver is divided, the blood vessels to the portion of the liver being donated are clamp and cut. The piece of liver is removed and transferred to the recipient operating room for transplant. After careful inspection for bleeding, the incision is closed with dissolving sutures and skin glue.
Each incision varies on the size of the abdomen and the lobe removed. Our surgical team works hard to keep the size of the incision to a minimum. It’s important to follow instructions after donation and care for your incision properly to promote healing and minimize the scar. Limit activity and lifting heavy objects to avoid a hernia.
After donation, Ochsner closely monitors all patients. We take pride in creating an environment that supports the needs of our patients and their families. The donor typically remains in the hospital for four to seven days after surgery. On the first night, the donor will stay in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). Typically on post-operative day 1 or 2, the donor can be transferred to the transplant step-down unit where our nurses specialize in the care of transplant donors and recipients. Total length of hospital stay will vary. Donors can be considered for discharge when pain is well controlled with oral medications, able to ambulate with minimal assistance and tolerating a regular diet.
Donors recover approximately three to six weeks after surgery. This time varies per donor. During this period, donors will return to the hospital for routine visits. Our physicians will monitor and assess their heath and let the donor know when they can resume normal activities.
The recipient’s health insurance will cover the donor’s medical expenses. This includes:
If more financial assistance is needed, contact the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The HRSA created a program known as the National Living Donor Assistance Center. This program helps cover all travel, lodging, meals, and incidental expenses incurred by the donor as part of:
The program will pay for a total of up to five trips, three for the donor and two for accompanying persons. The accompanying persons need not be the same each trip.
Visit the National Living Donor Assistance Center’s website to learn more.
Did you know? Living donation accounts for almost 6,000 organ donations every year. To receive a living donation, reduces a person’s wait time on the waitlist. This time is vital to saving lives. A liver from a living donor can also start functioning immediately, leading to better results overall after surgery.
Our transplant team will discuss, in detail, the benefits and risks of living-liver donation during your evaluation. If you feel uneasy, we can stop the process at any time.
There are several benefits to becoming a living liver donor. Donating saves lives!
Shorter Wait Times: If you have a living donor, you don’t have to wait as long, even if you have a low MELD score. A shorter wait time can reduce the risk of death while waiting on the deceased donor list. Use this waiting list outcome tool to help calculate your potential wait time.
Faster Recovery: Living donor recipients experience shorter hospital stays and are less likely to require blood transfusions or dialysis after surgery.
Improved Outcomes: According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, recipients of living donor livers have an average of five percent better long-term survival rates than recipients of deceased donor livers.
Our Living Donor Transplant team will discuss all possible risks with you before the procedure – donor safety is our top priority. As with any major surgery, living donor liver transplantations come with risks, including possible complications. For donors, these include:
For recipients, the risks are like those of a deceased donor liver transplantation. These include:
However, because the donated liver comes from a living donor, serious complications occur at a lower rate. Research has shown little long-term risk or effect on a living-liver donor. Death is extremely rare but has occurred in a few cases.
This tool from SRTR (Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients) was created to help patients in need of a liver transplant understand the experiences of patients on a liver transplant program's waiting list.
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