Liver Transplant

Liver transplantation is one of a difficult and complicated surgeries, which involves replacing a patient's liver with a portion of a healthy liver from a living or deceased donor or a complete liver from a deceased donor. The liver's importance in the body is its main functions, which is to rid the body of toxins, metabolize drugs and remove residues of natural metabolic processes that occur within the body, such as ammonia and bilirubin, in addition to the liver's ability to produce many important enzymes and proteins.

Liver transplantation is the only and definitive solution for patients with very advanced liver diseases, such as liver cancer and chronic liver problems that may affect the liver and its functions, such as cirrhosis and others.

A gastroenterology and endoscopy specialist, accompanied by a multidisciplinary medical team, can perform liver transplantation after a series of diagnostic and laboratory procedures to verify the donor's ability, tissue matching and other important steps. 

The duration of treatment is approximately "33 days".

A liver transplant may be the last chance to save a patient's life. A gastroenterologist often approves a patient's liver transplant surgery because of one of the following diseases: 

• Liver cirrhosis.
• Liver Cancer.
• Liver cirrhosis due to viral hepatitis (B and C).
• Sudden hepatic failure.

Before starting the patient preparation procedure for liver transplantation, the appropriate donor should be found and perform all tests to check for matching and avoid complications of the patient's rejection of the new liver, in addition to the assurance of the donor’s safety from infectious diseases or cancers, the tests include:

• Comprehensive blood tests.
• Urine test; to check the kidneys.
• Echocardiogram (Echo.); to make sure of heart functions.
• Electrocardiogram (ECG).
• X-ray tests, to check lungs and heart.
• Doppler sonar or ultrasound examination to detect blood vessels related to the liver.
• CT scan to assess liver size and shape.

- Matching tests: Including verification of patient and donor blood type matching.

Liver transplantation may have some risks and complications as a result of the operation itself or because of immunosuppressive drugs that the patient will take after the operation, including:

• Bleeding.
• Infection.
• Bile duct problems.
• Failure of liver from the donor.
• Rejection of the patient's body to the new liver.
• Blood clots.

The patient may feel some side effects of anti-rejection (immunosuppressive) drugs after liver transplantation, such as: Osteoporosis, diabetes, headache, high blood pressure, diarrhea and high cholesterol.

Liver transplant surgery includes the following:

After all the patient and donor tests have been carried out, the health of the donor has been verified for any viral or infectious diseases and the necessary matching has been made, both are prepared for the surgery, the steps begin with general anesthesia for each.

The first stage involves the removal of part of the donor's liver (if alive) and keeping it in a special substance until the patient is prepared, the size of the excised portion of the healthy liver depends on a certain proportion within international and medical standards that take into account the body weight relative to the size of the liver.

For the patient, the gastrointestinal surgeon makes a long incision in the abdomen to completely remove the liver after separating it from the blood vessels and associated bile ducts and replacing it with the healthy part from donor after reconnecting it with the arteries and surrounding circulation.

The surgeon then closes the incision using stitches and covers it with special bandages.

Liver transplantation takes approximately 12 hours.

*Patients may have to wait until their turn (waiting list) to get the proper liver, with monthly blood tests.

* Jordan adopts a law requiring the patient to obtain liver from first- or second-degree donors for the patient, or if only the donor is the spouse of the patient.

Coming soon 

The period following liver transplantation is very important for the patient. He must take good care of his health through strict adherence to prescribed medications such as immunosuppressant and various antibiotics to avoid complications after liver transplantation.

The recovery period after liver transplantation takes approximately 3 to 6 months after which the patient can return to his normal life.

The patient should be in constant contact with the gastrointestinal surgeon who is responsible for his case, share with him all the health details he may feel even if simple and casual, and adhere to the required visits to the surgeon, which are often periodically every 3 months, with a first visit after about a week or two weeks after checking out from the hospital.