Liver transplantation: living-related donations.

The LRLT procedure appears to be a promising alternative and adjunct to conventional liver transplantation. The advantages to this technique are a donor for each recipient, an improved quality of graft, and a reduction in pretransplant mortality in children. The procedure is not without risks, but the overall benefits seem to outweigh these risks, and only future experience will tell otherwise. Will there continue to be a need for such a procedure? We believe there will be, because the number of candidates needing transplantation will continue to grow and the demand for cadaveric organs will never be met. However, the procedure is extremely labor and resource intensive, and it is our belief that only a handful of large major medical centers will be able to adopt a live-donor program.