Liver Transplant News and Research

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When a patient presents with end stage liver disease or liver failure he or she may be considered for a liver transplantation. The first step in this is often a rigorous assessment and being placed on a waiting list.

Viral hepatitis: Liver failure caused by defects in the vascular system

In severe cases, a viral hepatitis infection can result in liver failure. A team from the Technical University of Munich has now discovered how this occurs: by immune cells attacking cells in the vascular system, which disrupts the organ's blood and nutrient supply.

19 Dec 2018

Split liver transplants could save children on wait list finds study

A review analysed 5,300 cases of liver transplants on children across the country. The team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Medicine looked at the patients who were more likely to survive after a split liver transplant. A split liver transplant is a type of transplant where the recipient receives only a part of the donor’s liver.

18 Dec 2018

Sickest children could benefit from split liver transplants

In a review of registry data for more than 5,300 liver transplants performed in children nationwide, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers identify the type of patient who is most likely to survive a split liver transplant--receiving only part of a donor's liver--with no additional long-term health risks, which could allow for an increase in the availability of organs.

18 Dec 2018

Elevated hormone flags liver disease in mice with serious genomic disorder

Researchers have discovered that a hormone, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), is extremely elevated in mice with liver disease that mimics the same condition in patients with methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), a serious genomic disorder.

6 Dec 2018

Playing on fear and fun, hospitals follow pharma in direct-to-consumer advertising

The scene is shadowy, and the background music foreboding. On the TV screen, a stream of beleaguered humans stand in an unending line.

19 Nov 2018

Targeted radiation provides treatment option for children with hard-to-treat liver cancer

Targeted tumor radiation provides a feasible treatment option for children with difficult-to-treat liver cancer, according to a new study published today in the journal Pediatric Blood and Cancer.

8 Nov 2018

Regenerative medicine scientist receives $1.3 million to study stem cell therapy for liver failure

Currently, the only therapy for metabolic liver disease is an organ transplant. Tracy Grikscheit, MD, an attending physician and regenerative medicine scientist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, hopes to change that reality.

7 Nov 2018

Researchers find improvement in liver transplant survival rate among older recipients

An increasing number of older adults are diagnosed with end-stage liver disease. End-stage liver disease is a life-threatening condition in which the liver stops working normally.

23 Oct 2018

Wits doctors transplant liver from HIV positive mother to her child with end-stage liver disease

This was the ethical dilemma faced by doctors at Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre to save a child's life.

4 Oct 2018

Liver transplant and weight-loss surgery combination offers long-term benefits to obese patients

Obese patients who underwent a life-saving liver transplant and weight-loss surgery at the same time were better able to keep the weight off long term and had fewer metabolic complications than those who lost weight on their own before undergoing a liver transplant, Mayo Clinic research shows.

3 Oct 2018

Doctor with Guillain Barré syndrome recovers back to normal life

Doctors do the darndest things. Take the one who walked right up to Dan Thomas, MD, at a lecture, got into the ready position, and proceeded to perform several squats as Thomas watched, puzzled.

6 Sep 2018

Surgeons test new device that keeps the liver warm and circulates blood during transport

Since the first liver transplant in 1963, donated livers have been immersed in an icy cold fluid in a cold storage system for transport, similar in principle to ice chests used for picnics and trips to the beach.

25 Aug 2018

Researchers find experimental compound to treat fibrotic diseases

Normal scar tissue forms to heal an internal wound and quietly retreats when the job is done. But in many common diseases - kidney, liver and lung fibrosis -- the scar tissue goes rogue and strangles vital organs. These diseases are largely untreatable and ultimately fatal.

13 Jul 2018

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease costs the U.S. healthcare system $32 billion annually

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, which affects roughly 100 million Americans, costs the United States healthcare system $32 billion annually, according to a first-of-its-kind study by Intermountain Healthcare researchers on the economic impact of the disease.

3 Jul 2018

Antidepressant drug appears to effectively stop progression of PBC

Gail Wright considered herself healthy. She had no idea she had a chronic liver disease. "I was at a routine check-up and my doctor said my liver enzymes were elevated. I was sent to a specialist but I wasn't too worried. I didn't have any symptoms."

27 Jun 2018

BIDMC scientists develop new tool to benefit patients with HCV-associated liver failure

An estimated 3.5 million people in the United States have chronic hepatitis C (HCV), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

18 Jun 2018

CU research sheds light on liver disease caused by intravenous nutrition

Research by physician-scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus offers hope for improved quality of life for people who rely on intravenous nutrition due to intestinal damage.

24 May 2018

Study: Medical centers more willing to perform lung transplants for severe alcoholic hepatitis patients

Increasingly, liver transplant centers are changing a long-standing practice of delaying potentially life-saving liver transplantation for patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis until after they stopped drinking alcohol for six months, according to a new study scheduled for presentation at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2018.

22 May 2018

Scientists discover mechanism behind unusual form of tissue regeneration in the liver

By studying a rare liver disease called Alagille syndrome, scientists from Cincinnati Children's and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered the mechanism behind an unusual form of tissue regeneration that may someday reduce the need for expensive and difficult-to-obtain organ transplants.

3 May 2018

Study: Transplanted livers have a protective effect and reduce potential for organ rejection

Transplanted livers change the profile of blood cells in the recipients, reducing the potential for organ rejection, Mayo Clinic research shows.

18 Apr 2018