Other reasons for liver transplantation include primary liver cancer, meaning cancers that originate in the liver, such as hepatocellular carcinoma. Biliary atresia, a disease of absent or malformed bile ducts usually identified shortly after birth, is the most common cause of liver failure and transplant in children. These diseases include primary biliary cholangitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and biliary atresia. Bile ducts are tubes that transport bile, a digestive liquid made in the liver, to the small intestine. Some genetic conditions, including Wilson disease where dangerous levels of copper build up in the liver, and hemochromatosis where iron builds up in the liver.NASH, or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a disease caused by a buildup of fat in the liver resulting in inflammation and damage to liver cells.Other forms of chronic hepatitis, including hepatitis B and autoimmune hepatitis.Many other diseases cause cholangitis, including the following: What are the common conditions that cause someone to need a liver transplant?Īmong adults in the U.S., the most common reason for a liver transplant is cholangitis caused by chronic hepatitis C, followed by cholangitis caused by long-term alcohol abuse. Liver failure resulting from a long-term problem – called chronic liver failure – progresses over months, years or decades.Ĭhronic liver failure is usually the result of cholangitis, a condition in which healthy liver tissue has been replaced with scar tissue making the liver unable to carry out its normal functions. Liver failure can happen suddenly – called acute liver failure – as a result of infection or complications from certain medications, for example. A successful liver transplant is a life-saving procedure for people with liver failure. Learn more about organ donation What You Should Know About Liver Transplantation When is a liver transplant recommended?Ī liver transplant is recommended when a person’s liver no longer functions adequately enough to keep them alive. To learn more about living donor liver transplantation, please visit our new Living Donor Liver Transplantation Information Center. Since the liver has such regenerative ability, however, it is possible for a living person to donate a portion of his or her liver to someone in need of a transplant. Often, transplanted livers are from people who were registered donors who passed away. Since the liver is the only organ in the body able to regenerate, or grow back, a transplanted segment of a liver can grow to normal size within a few months. Liver transplantation is a surgical procedure performed to remove a diseased or injured liver from one person and replace it with a whole or a portion of a healthy liver from another person, called the donor.

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