A liver transplant is a medical procedure to replace a damaged or failed liver with a healthy liver from a deceased person or a portion of a liver from a living person. You need a liver transplant when the liver stops functioning properly.

Liver is the largest internal organ performing the following critical functions:

• Making proteins that help the blood clot
• Removing bacteria and toxins from the blood
• Processing nutrients, hormones, and medications
• Regulating the immune system and preventing infection
• Producing bile- bile helps the body to absorb fats, fat-soluble vitamins, and cholesterol.

The number of patients awaiting liver transplants exceeds the number of liver available from deceased persons. Another alternative for liver transplant is through living person liver transplant. This is possible because the human liver regenerates and returns to its normal size shortly after surgical removal of part of the organ.

Why is a Liver transplant required?

Liver transplant is a medical procedure to replace damaged liver with a healthy liver. The surgery takes place when no medication works to control liver failure. Liver failure that happens quickly is called acute liver failure. This results from complications of certain medications.

Liver failure that happens over a period of time or slowly over months and years is called chronic liver failure. Chronic liver failure arises because of a variety of conditions and the most common being scarring of the liver known as cirrhosis.

A complication of the procedure:

Liver transplant surgery carries a proportion of risk and complication with it.

Following are certain risks associated with liver transplant:

• Bleeding
• Blood clots
• Infection
• Rejection of donated liver
• Seizures
• Failure of a donated liver
• Bile duct complications such as leaks or shrinking of the ducts.

How much liver transplant cost in India? The average cost of liver transplants ranges between 20-25 lakhs in India. This is roughly one-tenth of what it would cost in other western countries.

The liver transplant success rate is an 89% chance of living after one year. The five-year survival rate is 75%.

Trapianto di fegato malato

Sapete qual è il secondo organo più grande del corpo? È il fegato (dopo la pelle) e pesa circa 1,5 kg. Se il fegato è danneggiato in modo permanente e non è in grado di svolgere la sua funzione, allora il fegato danneggiato viene trapiantato con un fegato sano. La procedura chirurgica di sostituzione del fegato malato con un fegato sano si chiama trapianto di fegato.

Il trapianto di fegato è un intervento molto complicato e che richiede molto tempo e di solito si preferisce il trapianto ortotopico. In questo tipo di trapianto, il fegato malato viene rimosso e sostituito da un fegato sano nello stesso sito anatomico. Il trapianto è fatto da medici trapiantati altamente qualificati.