Urgent adult-to-adult right lobe living donor liver transplantation for acute liver failure; A single center experience from Turkey

Background/Aims; Acuet liver failure is a fatal condition unless an urgent liver transplantation is performed. In countries like Turkey, because of limited availability of cadaveric allografts. living donors could be used as an organ source for acute liver failure. We report our single center experience. Methodology: Six adult-to-adult right lobe living donor liver transplantations have been performed for those patients admitted with fulminant liver failure between September 2000 and April 2004. Results: The age of the patients ranged between 19 and 54 years. Etiology was fulminant hepatitis B in 4 patients, in Wilson's disease in 1 patient, and unknown in 1 patient. Five of 6 patients survived and are currently, alive and well with a mean 30 (2-46) months follow-up. None of the survivors had neurological sequela. One patient died because of sepsis 2 months after transplantation. There was no donor mortality. Conclusion: Adult-to-adult right lobe living donor liver transplantation seems to be an effective and safe option for patients with fulminant liver failure, especially in countries with a limited number of available cadaveric donors.