Background and Aims. There are few long-term studies of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in living liver donors. This study aimed to characterize donor HRQOL in the Adult to Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation Study (A2ALL) up to 11 years post-donation. Methods. Between 2004-2013, HRQOL was assessed at evaluation, and 3 months and yearly post-donation in prevalent liver donors using the Short Form survey (SF-36), which provides a physical (PCS) and a mental component summary (MCS). Results. Of the 458 donors enrolled in A2ALL, 374 (82%) had SF-36 data. Mean age at evaluation was 38 (range 18-63), 47% were male, 93% white, and 43% had a bachelor’s degree or higher. MCS and PCS means were above the US population at all time points. However, at every time point there were some donors who reported poor scores (>1/2 standard deviation below the age and sex adjusted mean) (PCS: 5.3%-26.8%, MCS: 10.0%-25.0%). Predictors of poor PCS and MCS scores included recipient death within the two years prior to the survey and education less than a bachelor’s degree; poor PCS scores were also predicted by time since donation, Hispanic ethnicity, and at the 3-month post-donation time point. Conclusions. In summary, most living donors maintain above average HRQOL up to 11 years prospectively supporting the notion that living donation does not negatively affect HRQOL. However, targeted support for donors at risk for poor HRQOL may improve overall HRQOL outcomes for living liver donors.

Previous reports have drawn attention to persistently decreased platelet counts among liver donors. We hypothesized an etiologic association between altered platelet counts and post-donation splenomegaly and sought to explore this relationship. This study analyzed de-identified CT/MR scans of 388 donors from 9 A2ALL centers read at a central computational image analysis lab. Resulting liver and spleen volumes were correlated with time-matched clinical lab values. Pre-donation liver volumes varied twofold in healthy subjects, even when normalized by body surface area (BSA) (range: 522 – 1887cc/m2, N=346). At 3 months post-donation liver volumes were, on average, 79% of pre-donation volumes (IQR: 73-86%, N=165) and approached 88% at 1 year (IQR: 80-93%, N=75). The mean spleen volume pre-donation was 245 cc (N=346). Spleen volumes greater than 100% of pre-donation volume occurred in 92% of donors at 3 months (N=165) and 88% at 1 year post-donation (N=75). We sought to develop a standard spleen volume (SSV) model to predict “normal” spleen volumes in donors pre-donation and found that decreased platelet counts, younger age, higher pre-donation liver volume, higher hemoglobin and higher BSA predicted a larger spleen volume (N=344, R2=0.52). When applied to post-donation values some large volumes were under predicted by the SSV model. Models developed on the reduced sample of post-donation volumes yielded smaller under-predictions. These findings confirm previous observations of thrombocytopenia associated with splenomegaly post-donation. The results of the SSV model suggest the biology of this phenomenon is complex. This merits further long term mechanistic studies of liver donors with investigation into the role of other factors such as thrombopoietin, and exposure to viral infections to better understand the evolution of spleen volume after liver donation.

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