Liver Transplantation Summary Your liver is the largest organ inside your body. It helps your body digest food, store energy, and remove poisons. You cannot live without a liver that works. If your liver fails, your doctor may put you on a waiting list for a liver transplant. Doctors do liver transplants when other treatment cannot keep a damaged liver working. During a liver transplantation, the surgeon removes the diseased liver and replaces it with a healthy one. Most transplant livers come from a donor who has died. Sometimes there is a living donor. This is when a healthy person donates part of his or her liver for a specific patient. The most common reason for a transplant in adults is cirrhosis. This is scarring of the liver, caused by injury or long-term disease. The most common reason in children is biliary atresia, a disease of the bile ducts. If you have a transplant, you must take drugs the rest of your life to help keep your body from rejecting the new liver. NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Related Issues About the Operation: Liver Transplant United Network for Organ Sharing Questions and Answers for Transplant Candidates about Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Pediatric End-Stage Liver Disease (PELD) United Network for Organ Sharing Find an Expert American Liver Foundation American Liver Foundation National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Clinical Trials ClinicalTrials.gov: Liver Transplantation National Institutes of Health Start Here Getting a New Liver: Facts about Liver Transplants American Society of Transplantation Liver Transplant American Liver Foundation Liver Transplantation National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases What I Need to Know about Liver Transplantation National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Reference Desk Liver Facts United Network for Organ Sharing Array Liver transplant Liver transplant – slideshow Living With Liver Transplant: Complications/Medications Department of Veterans Affairs Liver Transplant: Nutrition Department of Veterans Affairs Specifics Living Donor Liver Transplantation American Society of Transplantation Journal Articles Liver Transplantation Statistics and Research U.S. Hospitals with Liver Transplant Centers Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients Children When Your Child Needs a Liver Transplant Nemours Foundation Latest News Hepatitis C-Infected Liver Transplants May Work Well for Those with the Virus HealthDay Hepatitis C Therapy May Reduce Need for Liver Transplants HealthDay
