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A healthy adult who desires to be a potential liver donor, will meet with a team of experts at the Starzl Transplantation Institute for evaluation and tests. This process is meant to ensure that you and the recipient face the least possible risks with the highest chance of success. Once approved, you will undergo the surgery and a recovery period.
You will undergo an initial evaluation to make sure you have a compatible blood type with the recipient and have normal liver function.
Next, you will have an extensive assessment by a multidisciplinary team to make sure you are physically, emotionally, and financially able to meet the living-donor liver transplant requirements. This includes:
If a cadaveric liver becomes available while undergoing evaluation, the patient will be recommended for the deceased donor organ first.
Our transplant team has excellent outcomes, but there's always some risk to any surgery. Because adult-to-child liver donation uses a much smaller portion of the liver, donors do have a lower risk of complications from surgery.
If you are a suitable donor, your surgery will be scheduled at UPMC Montefiore.
The liver donor operation takes about 5 to 7 hours. You will be placed under general anesthesia and a surgeon will remove the appropriate portion of your liver, about 25 percent.
During the donor surgery, the child will be prepped and ready. The extracted portion of the liver is then taken to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC by ambulance accompanied by an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) crew and the transplant surgeon. The child's surgery will then begin.
Everyone recovers at a different rate, and your transplant team will work with you to provide a personalized treatment plan. We understand this is a difficult time, particularly if you are a parent making the donation.
You may need to stay in the hospital up to a week after surgery to fully recover. When you return home, continue to take it easy. Most people return to work and regular activities about 2 months after surgery, depending upon the physical demands of your job.
You'll also have regular follow-up appointments scheduled at about 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after surgery.
If you are a parent to the recipient, you will have surgery at a different hospital than your child. You must recover fully before you can leave the hospital, but we do everything we can to help you connect with your child after surgery. We have video conferencing capabilities to let you see and speak with your child as you both recover. We will help you return to each other as quickly and safely as possible.
Please be sure before surgery, that you have a strong network in place to provide support to both you and your child during recovery.
Learn more about the living-donor liver transplant process at UPMC.
Children's Hospital's main campus is located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Our main hospital address is:
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh One Children’s Hospital Way 4401 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224
In addition to the main hospital, Children's has many convenient locations in other neighborhoods throughout the greater Pittsburgh region.
With myCHP, you can request appointments, review test results, and more.
For questions about a hospital bill call:
To pay your bill online, please visit UPMC's online bill payment system.
Interested in giving to Children's Hospital? Support the hospital by making a donation online, joining our Heroes in Healing monthly donor program, or visiting our site to learn about the other ways you can give back.