Liver Transplants

Barclay Missen had resigned himself to hospice care.

Rates of liver-related mortality increased by 19.1% from 2018 to 2021 and varied “several-fold” between states, underscoring the need for improved access to liver transplantation regardless of location, according to researchers.

PHILADELPHIA — Expansion of Medicaid via the Affordable Care Act may be tied to less likelihood of transplant waitlist removal due to illness or death, a speaker here said.

BOSTON — Researchers reported similar patient and allograft survival 1 year after liver transplantation between COVID-19 positive and negative donors, showing potential for expanding organ access, according to data at The Liver Meeting.

After nearly a decade of health problems, Steve Harwell, former lead singer and frontman for the band Smash Mouth, died Sept. 4 at age 56, which the band’s manager, Robert Hayes, said was caused by acute liver failure.

The number of organs transplanted in 2022 set a new annual record at 42,887 transplants in the U.S., including more than 25,000 kidney transplants for the first time, according to a press release from the United Network of Organ Sharing.

Patients who received obeticholic acid for primary biliary cholangitis experienced greater transplant-free survival compared with external control patients, according to research published in Gastroenterology.

Expanding access to split liver transplants and adopting a “split first” policy on donor livers will significantly reduce mortality on the pediatric waitlist, noted a presenter at the American Transplant Congress 2022.

As liver transplants significantly increase among older patients, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis has become the most common reason for the procedure in this population, according to a study published in Hepatology Communications.

Among liver transplantation recipients, Black recipients vs. white and Hispanic recipients continue to have a survival disadvantage, according to a study in the American Journal of Transplantation.