Liver transplantation is now the accepted treatment for patients with complications of endstage liver disease and selected metabolic disorders. Unfortunately, the availability of donor organs is still a significant problem, and patients may die while awaiting transplantation. The development of techniques for surgical reduction of liver size and the use of older donor livers has made more organs available and has decreased the risk of patients dying on the waiting list. New antirejection agents, such as FK-506, are also being developed that may improve eventual outcome. In this discussion, we review these and other recent developments of liver transplantation.
展开▼
