It can be hard to ask for help, even in times of great need. We worry about being rejected, relinquishing control, or showing vulnerability. It’s just human nature.
So, imagine asking someone to donate a piece of themselves, literally, to help you. It takes a special kind of courage for patients in need of a transplant to ask friends, family, or the universe at large to donate a kidney or part of their liver to save their life.
Read more in Texas Metro News.
April is National Donate Life Month. It’s observed to help raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.
In the U.S., it’s estimated that 4.5 million adults are diagnosed with chronic liver disease. It develops over time and may be caused by a number of conditions including, hepatitis, genetics, alcohol overuse or cancer. Chronic liver disease is different than acute liver disease, which can come on quickly and may be the result of an injury or a virus. Read the full story from the Mayo Clinic here.
Patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver tend to have poor outcomes and are typically not candidates to receive liver transplants from deceased donors. However, results from a small study on transplanting livers from live-donors could “change this paradigm,” an expert said.
Patients with unresectable colon cancer that has spread to the liver tend to have poor outcomes and diminished quality of life.
Transplants from deceased donors are typically reserved for patients who have liver disease or have impaired liver function, and unfortunately most patients with colon cancer that has metastasized to their liver have normal liver functions and are therefore not a priority on transplant lists. Read the full article in Cure.
– Post-transplant survival similar between recipients with active or prior HCV infection
With the advent of direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the post-liver transplant setting, we are seeing more and more HCV-infected donor livers offered to patients awaiting liver transplant. Post-liver transplant outcomes for patients with HCV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who receive HCV-infected donor livers are not well established.
A recent study, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, utilized the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) registry to classify patients with HCV-related HCC (with either prior infection or active viremia) who received HCV-infected donor livers. Overall, the post-liver transplant survival outcomes were similar between recipients with active HCV infection and those with prior infection. Clinically, this study supports consideration of expanded use of HCV-infected liver donation to improve access to liver transplantation. Read more on MedPage Today.
— In small study, researchers see “encouraging” survival outcomes
Select patients with unresectable colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRLMs) had good survival outcomes following total hepatectomy and living-donor liver transplant (LDLT), a prospective study of 10 patients found.
In the series involving liver-confined metastatic disease in patients with a sustained response to oncologic therapy, Kaplan-Meier estimates of recurrence-free and overall survival at 1.5 years were an “encouraging” 62% and 100%, respectively, reported Gonzalo Sapisochin, MD, PhD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues. Read more.
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At first glance, it looked just like another liver transplant surgery at Michigan Medicine. There were surgeons, fellows, anesthesiologists, scrub nurses and more crowded into the operating room, prepping the patient and carrying out the hours-long procedure.
But this was no ordinary surgery. Read the full story.
— But little effect on graft, patient survival rates
Use of advanced preoperative 3D planning for pediatric liver transplant patients receiving larger grafts was associated with lower risk of postoperative complications, a small retrospective study in Taiwan found.
Kids receiving living-donor livers that were large-for-size — graft-to-recipient weight ratio (GRWR) ≥4% — had a significantly lower risk for postoperative complications in the 3D era than those receiving larger grafts in the pre-3D era and a control group of kids receiving better size-matched organs (OR 0.06, 95% CI 0.006-0.700, P=0.025), reported Chinsu Liu, MD, PhD, of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan, and colleagues. Read more.
Liver transplants save lives. I know because my life was saved by one.
As a liver transplant hepatologist, I’ve spent my career taking care of patients who are waiting for or have received a lifesaving liver transplant. But in 2002, my world was turned upside down: I was given the gift of life when I myself became a liver transplant recipient.
Read more.
Adifficult day turned around for Dr. Dinee Simpson after she unexpectedly ran into a former patient of hers when she grabbed some coffee, as detailed in a now-viral tweet.
“Woman next to me stared at my ID badge and started to cry,” read Simpson’s tweet, which has more than 272,000 likes at the time of publication. “I did her liver transplant last year, she was so sick then. Today she had her hair did, makeup on, and looked FABULOUS.”
Read the full story.
As liver transplants significantly increase among older patients, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis has become the most common reason for the procedure in this population, according to a study published in Hepatology Communications.
“Another study from our team, which in publication in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, suggests that the proportion of elderly patients in need of liver transplantation in the U.S. is sharply increasing,” study author Zobair M. Younossi MD, MPH, president of Inova Medicine Services and professor and chairman of the department of medicine at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus in Virginia, told Healio. Read more.