As common sense would dictate, the chances of survival following liver transplantation are directly related to a patient's medical condition just prior to the procedure. If you are already in the hospital suffering from infections and require lung support from a machine, the chance of your surviving the procedure and going home is approximately 50 percent. In general, the results of liver transplantation are simply not as satisfactory in this serious, emergent situation. Therefore, the conditions of the patients that present for transplantations have been so mixed over the last few years that approximately 75percent of recipient of liver grafts will live long-term. Of course that means 25 percent will die following this procedure.
Death occurs usually within the first six weeks of transplantations.
Death is usually due to inability to control infections that develop in the early postoperative period. In fact, the liver transplantation team of surgeons spend approximately 80 percent of their time making the early diagnosis of any infection in the early post-transplantation period. Treatment of any infection is two pronged. As common sense would dictate, all patients' immune systems do not react alike to the new liver, therefore immunosuppression is custom-designed for each individual.