Waiting Time and Status
A patient is placed on the Penn, regional, and
United
Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) national
waiting lists after:
- Successful completion of the Penn Liver Transplant
Program evaluation
- Once candidacy for transplantation is approved
by the Penn Liver Transplant Team
Because of the high risk of death of those patients
with end-stage liver disease while waiting on
the list, the United Network for Organ Sharing
(UNOS) has developed the Model
for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD)/Pediatric Model
for End-stage Liver Disease (PELD) scoring
system. This system is used in conjunction with
blood type factors. Traditionally, patients with
blood type AB have the shortest waiting time followed
respectively by A, B and blood group O.
Once you are "listed" on a liver transplantation
waiting list, obtaining a liver transplant depends
on several factors, including:
- Your blood type
- The number of other patients listed within
the local area
- The severity of liver disease of the other
patients listed in the local area
- The number of organs available in the local
area or region
We are fortunate to work with the Gift
of Life Donor Program, the largest organ procurement
program in the country. However, patients may
wait days, weeks, months or years for a liver
transplant.
In an effort to transplant patients quickly,
Penn attempts to increase the donor pool through
expanding donor criteria, living-related donation,
and split liver procedures.
- Living
donation is when a family member or a friend
donates part of a liver to be transplanted
into the patient with liver disease. The diseased
liver is replaced with the new tissue that
grows into a functioning organ.
- In the "split liver" procedure,
one healthy liver is divided with each of
the resulting portions being transplanted
into separate patients. The split liver procedure
allows more patients to benefit from a donor
liver.
- Often these procedures are used to transplant
pediatric patients. More information is available
at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
web site
Revised by Kim
Olthoff, MD
Last updated February 2006
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