Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about liver transplants. And you can find written notes on this topic at

zero tofinals.com slash liver transplant or in the gastroenterology section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

When an entire liver is transplanted from a deceased donor to a recipient,

it's known as an orthotopic transplant.

Ortho refers to straight and topic refers to in place.

The liver has the ability to regenerate.

Therefore it's possible to take a portion of the liver from a living donor,

transplant that portion into a patient who needs a transplant

and have both regenerate to

become two fully functioning organs. This is known as a living donor transplant. It's also possible

to split the liver of a deceased person into two and transplant each part into two different patients who need

a transplant and have the livers regenerate to function normally in each recipient.

And this is known as split donation.

Let's talk about the indications.

Indications for liver transplants fall into two categories, acute liver failure and chronic liver failure.

They may also be used in specific cases of hepatocelular carcinoma or liver cancer.

Acute liver failure usually requires an immediate liver transplant and these patients are

placed on the top of the transplant list. The most common causes of acute liver failure are acute

viral hepatitis and paracetamol overdose. Chronic liver failure patients can wait longer for their liver transplant and they're put on the standard

transplant list.

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