How Long Will I Survive After a Liver Transplant?

A liver transplant involves surgically removing a liver that is no longer functioning properly, and replacing it with a healthy liver, or a portion of one, from a donor.

Most donated livers come from people who have died. They come from registered organ donors or people whose next of kin consent to them becoming a donor. Less commonly, liver transplants involve a living donor, often a friend, family member, or stranger whose tissue matches, and who donates a segment of their liver.

Typically, surgeons will only perform a liver transplant when all other treatment options have been ruled out. Nevertheless, liver transplants are the second most common type of transplant surgery after kidney transplants, with more than 157,000 carried out in the United States since 1988.

In 2015 alone, 7,100 liver transplants took place, with 600 of those surgeries performed on people 17 years of age or younger.

Though liver transplants carry a risk of significant complications, the procedure has a high success rate. The operation typically helps save or greatly extend the lives of people with severe liver conditions.

Survival rates

Due to a variety of complicated factors, it is almost impossible to predict an individual's chances of having a successful liver transplant or how long they will survive afterward.

However, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) list the following average survival rates for people who have had liver transplant surgery from a deceased donor:

·86 percent still alive 1 year after surgery

·78 percent still alive 3 years after surgery

·72 percent still alive 5 years after the surgery

·53 percent still alive 20 years after the surgery

Reported survival rate estimates vary depending on the type of information used, as well as when and how they were calculated.

Although liver transplants have high success and survival rates, an individual's chances of surviving and thriving after the surgery depend on a mix of critical factors.

Factors include:

·age

·body mass index (BMI) and major fluctuations in body weight

·how healthy a person is before the surgery

·severity of their liver failure and how many other organs are involved, especially the kidneys

·cause of the liver failure

·medical history

·additional health conditions