02 July 2007 - First NHS Adult Live Liver Transplant

Doctors at St James' Hospital in Leeds have carried out the NHS's first adult-to-adult live donor liver transplant. Stephen Lomas, 51 received part of his 20 year old son, David's healthy liver in an eight hour operation involving two pairs of surgeons working simultaneously in separate theatres.

Stephen Lomas is said to be making excellent progress after the operation which took place on June 21st, and David has now been discharged.

Live donor liver transplantation has been carried out in other countries for more than 15 years, but it is the first time the treatment has been made available to adult patients in the UK by the NHS. NHS liver transplants usually rely on organs becoming available after a donor has died, and the chronic shortage of donors means that one in five liver transplant patients currently die whilst on the waiting list.

Consultant hepatologist Dr Charlie Milson commented:

"The liver has two important features that make living-related donation possible - it is much larger than we need and it can regenerate within weeks if part of it is removed.

"In this procedure we remove part of the liver of a healthy donor and transplant it into a patient with liver failure.

"The remaining liver in the donor will regrow within weeks to almost its normal size.

The technique involves transplanting up to 60% of a donor's liver (a section about 13 cm long) in to the recipient. It is possible because the liver has an incredible ability to regenerate in both the recipient and the donor over a period of 3 months. The initiative has been welcomed by Transplant charities but they have highlighted the need to make potential donors aware of the risks involved - the mortality rate amongst donors is 1 in 200 (compared to about 1 in 3000 for live kidney donors) and there is a 1 in 5 chance of complications (compared to 1% in kidney donors).