The Current State of Liver and Pancreas Transplantation

Liver transplantation: An overview

“…The decision to perform liver transplantation in patients with any of a number of chronic irreversible diseases or fulminant hepatic failure is not particularly difficult because it is well established in these patients that survival without transplantation is likely to be less than 1 year (1)(2)(3)(4)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). The major problem with the application of liver transplantation to patients with hepatic malignancy is recurrence of tumor despite clinical and pathologic evidence that the malignancy is confined to the liver or excised bile ducts at the time of transplantation.…”

“…Five-year survival rates in several series of adult patients range from 55 to 85% (8,17). These results are particularly impressive when it is recalled that the alternative of medical therapy for many of the conditions yields 1-year survival rates of only 0 to 30% (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11).…”