As the region's first split-liver transplant, this landmark procedure has proven even more remarkable. Even without the full liver, Turner is doing better then he expected, according to both his doctors and his wife. Turner, a resident of Escondido who had been waiting for a liver transplant for about a year and a half, was suffering from hepatitis C which evolved into pulmonary hepato syndrome, a complication of liver disease which affects oxygenation of the lungs. We could not look at his sweet face and say no. Harold doesn't need all of it to survive and Cesar only needs a little of it, and now they have both gotten a second chance at life from one organ.
Adults receive most of the organs, unless the livers are too small to work in adults.
We anticipate that this procedure will help address the organ shortage. We can continue to give adults the hope that comes from a transplant and offer the same hope to many more children. UCSD Healthcare now joins only about a dozen medical centers nationwide performing split-liver transplants. The procedure has been successfully performed in the United States for a little more than a decade. In 1998, there were 138 transplants in the United States involving split livers.