Patients were transplanted according to the MELD score, which is based on recipient kidney function, coagulation time and serum bilirubin, and ranges from 7 to 40. This score is a reliable parameter to predict mortality of liver transplant candidates on the waiting list [12] . In order to prevent discrimination of patients on the waiting list with a hepatic tumor or a metabolic and cholestatic disease, those patients received exceptional points, resulting in higher (corrected) MELD scores than the calculated laboratory (uncorrected) MELD would be [13] . Following approval by the local ethics committee, all patients gave written informed consent before transplantation for postoperative data analysis.