A recent article in the New York Times highlighted domino liver transplants and ethical dilemmas surrounding them
On May 2, the newspaper published "'Domino' Transplants: Rare and Risky" by Eric Nagourney. The story discussed a domino transplant in which a 58-year-oldwoman from Watertown, S.D., received a liver from a 62-year-old Waterford, Mich., man who, in turn, received a new liver, heart, and kidney. The man had familial amyloidosis, a fatal, genetic disease in which the liver produces an abnormal protein.
However, it is thought that recipients of such livers may take years to develop symptoms of the disease and may not even develop the symptoms at all.
The newspaper said that ethical issues surrounding such transplants include whether livers with amyloidosis should be offered "into the general distribution system." Also, the paper asked, "What, for example, should a hospital do if an emergency liver failure case comes in as doctors are about to perform an elective domino procedure?"
Domino liver transplantation has been carried out an estimated 40 times around the world in the past four years. Most of the transplants were done in Europe, and a handful have been carried out in the United States. On February 1, Transplant News Network reported that the procedure had recently made its debut at two U.S. hospitals: the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass., and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
For Your Information:
The article can be purchased online from the New York Times. At http://archives.nytimes.com/archives, search for the article by entering the headline of the story: "'Domino' Transplants: Rare and Risky." Also see the Transplant News Network story at www.centerspan.org/tnn/0002014.htm.
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