What are the major risks in liver transplantation?
Before liver transplantation, risks to the patient are mainly those who develop acute complications of liver failure or progressive complications of chronic liver failure that might render the patient an unacceptable risk for surgery. With surgery, the risks are those that are common to all forms of major surgery, or involve technical difficulties in removing the diseased liver, involve implanting the donor liver, and/or involve consequences of being without liver function briefly. Immediately after the operation, risks include bleeding, poor function of the grafted liver, bile leaks, and infections. We monitor the patient carefully for several weeks after surgery for signs that the patient is rejecting the new liver as well.
