Almost thirty years have elapsed since the first successfull liver transplantation was performed. The results, in the benining being poor, gradualy improved. Now there is a remarkable chance offered to patients having untreatable liver disease. The overall 5-year survival after liver transplantation is recently estimated to be over 70 percent.
Liver transplantation is still a complex, demanding and expensive surgical procedure.
In the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana a liver transplantation programme was started back in 1988. In 1995 the first liver transplantation was accomplished. The excellent outcome of this event was a result of thorough and meticulous logistic preparations and proper education and training of all subjects involved. For the future it seems inevitable to establish a Transplant Centre in Slovenia. This would be economicaly reasonable provided the number of donors would reach the european standards and that the Center would be actively involved in all kinds of organ transplantations.