Liver Transplant

Split-Liver Transplant at Mayo Clinic

In some cases, it is possible to divide the donor liver into two parts and transplant the parts into two recipients. This procedure is very similar to a live donor liver transplant. In this circumstance, the donor livers are always from large, young "perfect" donors and are generally placed into two smaller adult or adolescent recipients. One recipient would receive about 60 percent of the liver (right lobe), and the other about 40 percent (left lobe).

The advantages to this technique are that two patients can benefit from one donor and both receive a liver from a "perfect" donor as opposed to a "marginal" donor. The disadvantage is that the recipients receive a smaller amount of liver and may have a somewhat decreased success rate (80 percent vs 90 percent) with more complications.

In infants, a small piece of the liver (20 percent) can be removed from the whole liver, leaving a large piece that can be used in an adult with little increased risk for complications.