Living Liver Donation in Adults
Summary
A growing disparity between the number of liver transplant candidates and the supply of deceased donor organs has been the stimulus for the development of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Living liver donation should be performed only if the risk to the donor is justified by the expectation of an acceptable outcome for the recipient. Adult LDLT (ALDLT) is a technically challenging procedure immersed in inherently complex ethical issues. This chapter deals with the ethics and provides an overview of the donor and recipient selection criteria in ALDLT. Donor evaluation is one of the most important aspects of ALDLT. Donor safety is paramount to the success of LDLT and also for the transplant program. Advantages of LDLT include thorough donor screening, optimization of timing for transplantation, minimal cold ischemia time, and a lowering of the wait-list mortality for the recipient.
