Risks With Adult Living Donor Liver Transplant: An Overview
In addition to the risks faced by the liver donor
(see
Liver Donation Surgery Complications), there are a number of possible risks that the recipient faces during and after the liver transplant surgery.
The risks of having any surgery, regardless of the specific procedure, include:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Pressure damage to the nerves and skin
- Pain at the incision site
- Minor bleeding
- Allergic skin reaction.
More serious complications can also happen as a result of liver transplant surgery, such as:
- Bile duct leaks
- Graft failure, which is when the new liver doesn't work
- Infection at the surgical site, inside the abdomen, or in the lungs
- Hernia
- Fluid buildup in the chest
- Blood clots -- in addition to the usual post-surgery risk of forming blood clots in the legs or lungs, people receiving a new liver can also form clots in the hepatic artery
- Bowel obstruction
- Spleen damage
- Death.
It's also important to know that the same problem that made the recipient's liver transplant necessary -- such as a tumor, a virus, or a disease of the immune system -- may come back and damage the liver portion that has been donated.
In addition, the recipient's body will recognize the new liver as being "foreign: and may send immune cells to attack it. This is called "liver transplant rejection," and usually happens within the first three months of the transplant. Most people experience some amount of rejection, but it is almost always reversed with medications.
Since the recipient will be taking medications to decrease the strength of the immune system, he or she will have a higher risk of developing tumors,
high blood pressure (
hypertension),
diabetes, and certain infections. The recipient will receive additional medications to prevent the more common post-transplant infections.
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