Once you become eligible for the liver transplant, you will be put on a national waiting list. If we’re thinking of early 2015, around 14,000 people were waiting for their liver transplants.
Listing a placement and waiting for the match
Once you’re placed on the list, it comes to where exactly are you placed on the list of liver transplant surgery cost. This is decided by MELD, Model of End Stage Liver disease score. This score is more or less based on the blood tests that measure the level of creatinine. Creatinine shows how well someone’s kidneys are working and also checking the normalized international ratio which is actually a measure of how the liver makes blood clotting proteins.
The people who have the highest scores are placed higher on the list. The ones with the highest scores are the ones who are the sickest. Regular blood tests are a necessity to update the MELD score and the immediacy position on the list. There is also something else known as the Pediatric End Stage Liver disease score for anyone who’s younger than 12. The success of a transplant surgery is heavily dependent on a good match with a donor who qualifies for the match. This therefore means that the wait time can also vary based on the blood type and the body size.
A number of factors determine if a person will actually receive a liver transplant. So for example, two people who have high MELD scores, qualify for a transplant, the person who’s been there longer on the list will recieve the transplant earlier. In addition to this, a person who’s high up on the transplant list and has a rare blood type will be less likely to match with a donor in question.
If a person is facing an acute liver failure then he/she might just be placed at the very top because for them, the risk of death is more in comparison to someone who has a chronic condition.
What to do when a match is found?
Waiting for liver transplantation to take place is a really long process but the surgery coordination takes place very quickly once you get yourself a match. The liver can come from anywhere. It can also be from a deceased donor who had a healthy liver and now doesn’t anymore. Sometimes it so happens that one liver can be beneficial for both the recipients. The smaller left side is used in the case of children and the right side of the organ is very often used for adult recipients. A living donor can also provide a very good match in terms of the blood type and other kinds of factors and can donate a small portion of their own liver.
How to recover from a liver transplant?
Getting the transplant is all just a part of getting a new liver. Bed rest and a 3 week stay in the hospital is very common after the average cost of liver transplant. During the course of this time, your doctor in charge will evaluate the success of the operation and will determine the needs for proper care at home.