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A Daughter’s Gift: UNC Hospitals Performs First Living Donor Liver Transplant in Twenty Years

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Meredith Stiehl received a partial-liver transplant from her daughter Kenan, the first-ever living donor procedure at UNC Hospitals to be conducted in twenty years. Chirag Desai, MD, FACS, led the care team that performed the procedure.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The bond between a mother and daughter is quite special. This is particularly true for Meredith Stiehl, 57, who recently received a liver transplant from her 26-year-old daughter, Kenan Stiehl, to treat life-threatening liver disease.
Read more from the UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.

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U-M study may help identify patients needing liver transplants

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by Mary Corey

A recent study conducted by a team of University of Michigan medical researchers may help to identify which patients suffering from acute liver failure need liver transplants to live and which can survive without them, helping hospitals more effectively allocate organ donations. With the overall mortality rate of acute liver failure reaching almost 50%, the researchers set out to find a way to tell which patients most urgently need a liver transplant and which can likely survive without. Read more in The Michigan Daily.

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Rise in liver failures, transplants highlight need to curb high-risk drinking in all ages

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By Katie Burba

CHICAGO — Researchers reported a 262% increase in liver transplantation for acute-on-chronic liver failure in older patients from 2005 to 2021, with alcohol-related liver disease becoming the leading cause during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Data on liver transplantation for acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) in adults older than 65 years are currently limited,” Joseph J. Alukal, MD, assistant clinical professor in the department of internal medicine at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine, told Healio. Read more in Healio.

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Liver transplant survivor’s recovery linked to sociodemographic factors, study shows

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By UT Southwestern Medical Center

The resilience and coping abilities of patients who’ve had liver transplants vary and change over time and are often linked to sociodemographic factors including income, race, and education, a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers shows. The findings could lead to tailored interventions to optimize clinical and patient-centered outcomes among liver transplant recipients.

“When we take care of patients who have gone through this life-changing surgery, recovery really evolves over time,” said transplant hepatologist Sarah R. Lieber, M.D., M.S.C.R., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and a member of the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases. Read more in Medical Xpress.

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Study Suggests Fixes for Persistent Geographic Inequity in Liver Transplants

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Researchers Call for Shift From ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Allocation Policy

By Maryland Staff Today

The recent overhaul of the federal policy on allocating deceased donor livers has not significantly improved geographical inequities yet has led to a greater loss in viable organs, according to a new study co-authored by University of Maryland researchers.

They recommend improving the broader sharing approach outlined in the 2020 policy, known as Acuity Circles, to mitigate inequities across regions of the country; these include variations in transplant rates, patient survival rates, waiting times and organ offers. The study by S. Raghu Raghavan, Dean’s Professor of Management Science and Operations Management, and Associate Professor of Marketing Liye Ma, both in UMD’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, and Shubham Akshat, assistant professor of operations management at Carnegie Mellon University, is forthcoming in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. Read more in Maryland Today.

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Who deserves a liver transplant?

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With deaths from alcohol-related disease on rise, some in the field are rethinking criteria that exclude patients from life-saving care

By Samantha Laine Perfas

During one of his first rotations as a medical student, John Messinger had a patient in his 40s with alcohol-related hepatitis. Because the patient had been treated for alcohol use disorder and relapsed, he was ineligible for a liver transplant. Messinger watched the patient deteriorate, knowing more could have been done to save his life. Read the full story in The Harvard Gazette.

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Teen Taking on Life After Intestine-Liver-Pancreas Transplant

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By Lynn Nichols

For five years, Diana Topete couldn’t freely eat. She rarely had the chance to enjoy her favorite foods—seafood, tacos, ice cream—with her family and friends. That’s because she didn’t have any intestines.

Instead of eating, Diana was fed intravenously. For 12 hours each day, she was hooked up to parenteral nutrition, or TPN, which delivers liquid nutrients through a central line or semipermanent IV. There’s no pleasure in it, but it kept her alive. 
Read the full story in Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.

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Liver transplant program receives national recognition

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By Norma Rabago

The University Health Transplant Institute was recently recognized by INTERLINK, a national managed care company, as the No. 1 liver transplant program in the country. The Transplant Institute is a partnership between University Health and the Malú and Carlos Alvarez Center for Transplantation, Hepatobiliary Surgery and Innovation at UT Health San Antonio.

For more than 50 years, the medical school’s transplant center has staffed University Health with best-in-class physicians from the faculty of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Read more from the UT San Antonio Health Newsroom.

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Transplant Chief Was an Organ Recipient Herself

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— Years ago, she had a liver transplant. Now she leads Hopkins’ pediatric liver transplant program

By Jennifer Henderson
Though it wasn’t so long ago that Sara Kathryn Smith, MD, was a liver transplant patient herself, last year she became the medical director for pediatric liver transplantation at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.

Smith’s unique perspective on patient care has primed her for the role, and for advocating for the importance of organ donation and transplantation throughout the calendar year, but especially in April — National Donate Life Month. Read the full article in MedPage Today.

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Liver Transplants for CRC Metastases: Coming Into Its Own?

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By Roxanne Nelson, RN, BSN

Liver transplant is an effective therapy for patients with primary liver cancer, and outcomes after transplantation are often superior to surgical resection. But the pool of potential patients is increasing, as transplantation is now emerging as an attractive option for select patients with nonresectable colorectal cancer (CRC) liver metastases, as well as those with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA).

Experts in the field highlighted some of the current challenges and opportunities in transplant oncology during a special session at the 2023 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.
Read more in Medscape.

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