A SERVICE
OF 
Transplant
Procedure Takes the Live Donor's Right Liver
ATLANTA: October 1, 2000 · by TNN Medical Reporter Virginia
Baskerville
- A new live-donor liver transplantation procedure is giving new hope
to children and teenagers who are awaiting a new liver.
Traditionally,
livers have been transplanted from cadavers. Increasingly, however, livers have
come from live donors who give the recipient part of the left sides of their
livers-donating from the left side has been considered less risky than donating
from the larger right side. However, some donors are now undergoing right-sided
hepatectomy and, because the right side is bigger, bigger children can be the
beneficiaries.
On September 5 at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta,
13-year-old, 165-pound Destin Wright received 65% of the right side of his
mother's liver. A few weeks later, the boy and his mother were recuperating at
home.
"This latest transplant is significant because it will help us do
more live-donor liver transplants to children of all ages. Previously, a child
Destin's size…would have competed with adult liver patients waiting for
organ donors," said Thomas Heffron, MD, program director of adult and pediatric
transplants at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University Hospital.
"We are excited about the promise of this technique because there is such a
shortage of healthy cadaveric livers out there."
According to a press
release, Children's Healthcare has done 78 liver transplants since early 1997.
Dr. Heffron participated in the world's first series of living-donor liver
transplants 11 years ago in Chicago.
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