what to do while waiting for a liver transplant

April 09, 2022 Post a Comment

In this department:

Talk with your doctor about a liver transplant
Visit a transplant middle
Go evaluated for a liver transplant
Go canonical for a liver transplant
Go placed on the national waiting list
Confirm living donor match if yous cull this blazon of liver transplant

The liver transplant process has many steps, including talking with your medico, visiting a transplant center, and getting evaluated.

Talk with your doctor nigh a liver transplant

The get-go pace is to talk with your doc to find out whether you are a candidate for a transplant. Doctors consider liver transplants only after they have ruled out all other treatment options. Yet, a liver transplant is not for anybody. Your doctor may tell yous that you are not healthy enough for surgery. You lot may have a medical condition that would make a transplant unlikely to succeed. If you and your doctor think a liver transplant is right for you, your doctor will refer you to a transplant center.

Male doctor talking with an older male patient. — Talk with your doctor to discover out whether a liver transplant is right for yous.

Visit a transplant centre

During your outset visit to a transplant center, health professionals will provide data about

the evaluation and approval process
placement on the national waiting list
reasons for being removed from the national waiting list
the waiting catamenia
how people are selected for liver transplants
surgery and recovery
the long-term demands of living with a liver transplant, such every bit taking medicines for the residue of your life

Get evaluated for a liver transplant

You will go through a series of evaluations at the transplant center, where you will run into members of your transplant team. You may need to visit the transplant centre several times over the form of a few weeks or even months.

Your team will ask y'all about your medical history and perform medical tests. These tests may include

a physical exam
blood and urine tests
tests that provide pictures of organs inside your body, chosen imaging tests
tests to encounter how well your heart, lungs, and kidneys are working

The team will utilise the results of these tests to tell them

how likely yous are to survive transplant surgery
what other diseases and weather you have
the crusade and severity of your liver illness

Your team volition observe out if yous are healthy enough for surgery. Some medical conditions or illnesses tin can brand a liver transplant less likely to succeed. You may not be able to have a transplant if you have

a severe infection
booze or drug abuse issues
cancer exterior the liver
serious heart or lung affliction

Also, the transplant team will

discover out whether yous or your caregivers are able to understand and follow your doctor's instructions for care after your transplant. They need to be sure yous are mentally prepared for caring for a new liver.
find out whether you have a good support arrangement of family unit members or friends to assist care for y'all before and after the transplant.
review your medical insurance and other fiscal resources. Many fiscal assistance programs are available to people receiving a liver transplant and their families to help with the cost of the surgery, medicines, and intendance.

Get canonical for a liver transplant

The transplant center'southward selection committee will review the results of your evaluation. Each transplant center has its own guidelines about who can get a liver transplant. Transplant centers often post their guidelines on their websites. The centers also follow national guidelines.

Keep in mind that yous may choose not to have a transplant even though you lot have been canonical.

Get placed on the national waiting list

If you are approved for a transplant and practice not have a living donor, the transplant middle volition submit your proper name to be placed on the national waiting list for a liver from a deceased donor. If you have a living donor, the transplant centre will not place you on the national waiting list.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) has a reckoner network linking all regional organ-gathering organizations—known every bit organ procurement organizations—and transplant centers. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a nonprofit organisation, runs the OPTN under a contract with the Federal Authorities. When UNOS officially adds you to the national waiting list, UNOS will notify yous and your transplant center.

UNOS policies let you annals with more than one transplant center to increase your chances of receiving a liver. Each transplant center may require a separate medical evaluation.

Wait for a friction match

The waiting menses for a deceased donor transplant can range from less than thirty days to more than 5 years.^four How long y'all will wait depends on how badly y'all need a new liver. Other factors—such your age, where you live, your blood blazon and body size, your overall wellness, and the availability of a matching liver—may make your wait time longer or shorter. The UNOS computer matches a deceased donor's liver based on your blood blazon and body size.

UNOS policies rank people with the well-nigh urgent demand for a new liver to forbid death at the top of the national waiting list.

When a matching liver from a deceased donor is institute, your transplant team coordinator will call you right away, tell you what yous need to practice before going to the hospital, and ask you to come to the infirmary right away.

Confirm living donor friction match if you cull this type of liver transplant

If a family unit member, spouse, or friend wants to be a living donor, the transplant team will make up one's mind whether yous and the person accept claret types that piece of work together and a similar torso size. The transplant squad will

ask the potential donor most his or her medical history
perform medical tests to brand sure the person is in expert general health, with no major medical or mental illnesses

The potential donor must exist able to empathize and follow instructions before and after surgery, be between the ages of 18 and 60, and have an emotional tie to the person receiving the liver transplant.

The OPTN and UNOS provide detailed data on the organ transplant process.