Live Life Team
The surgical procedure by which the unhealthy liver present in a person’s body is removed and then it is replaced by a healthy liver available for a donor is known as liver transplant. The donor is normally a person who is not alive, but has given the consent for donating his or her liver before passing away. The procedure is medically known as orthotopic liver transportation.
Even though a person who is alive can also donate his liver, it is a very rare case of liver transplantation. This is known medically as split-liver transplant or living donor transplant. This is normally used in cases where new and healthy liver tissues can be grown in unhealthy liver.
The normal recovery time a person requires after undergoing a liver transplantation is three months. But the person will be on medication throughout his life so as to avoid the attacks from the body’s immune system.
What are the conditions under which a person should undergo liver transplant
A healthy liver has the power to repair itself if any infection develops or from the adverse effects of alcohol. But it slowly loses that healing power in case if it develops infections of chronic nature or long term like cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis – type A, B as well as C, cancer affecting the liver, any illness that develops due to the excessive intake of alcohol.
The person has to undergo liver transplant only if the treatment that are available for the symptoms prove to be ineffective. A person may also be advised to undergo transplant if the disease that has affected the liver is in an advanced stage or is a stage from where it is irreversible.
The conditions where a person may be advised liver transplant are conditions of acute or short term diseases of the liver like viral hepatitis as well as conditions of chronic or long term diseases like sclerosing cholangitis, Wilson’s disease, chronic hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease as well as biliary cirrhosis.
Before undergoing liver transplant, the following tests are used for assessing the conditions of the person – blood tests, tests to check the functioning of the liver, tests to rule out the presence of any viral or bacterial infections in the liver, biopsy of the liver, X-ray of the chest, dental examination, breathing tests and an abdominal endoscopy to check the blood flow via the liver.
Risks associated with the transplantation of liver
Like all the other surgical procedures, liver transplant has also risks associated with it. The major risk associated with liver transplant, as with any other surgery, is the development of stroke or heart attack in the person.
The other complications which a person may develop immediately after undergoing the transplant are – Bleeding from the point where the blood vessels and the liver of the donor are connected. The bile ducts may develop leaking in the point where the new liver gets connected. This can lead to infections in the abdomen, short term renal damage, developing infections. The blood flowing through the hepatic arteries may develop clots.
In very rare cases, people may develop hypertension, high level of cholesterol or even diabetes.
