A third option is to take part in our High Risk Liver Transplantation Program. If you'd like to know more about living donor transplants, ask your hepatologist or liver specialist, your surgeon or your transplant coordinator. Living donor transplants carry risks for both the donor and the recipient, and not everyone is a candidate. Another option is to receive a piece of liver from a living donor, called a living donor transplant. If you're interested in this option, ask your insurance company for referrals to such centers or search the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). One option is to go to a transplant center in an area of the country where the waiting list is shorter and patients get transplants with MELD scores that are much lower than what's needed in these regions with long waiting lists. Is there a way to expedite a transplant? Yes. In other parts of the country people typically get transplanted with MELD scores in the 20s. Some patients grow worse suddenly, and become too sick to receive a transplant. Most patients are quite sick by the time they receive a transplant, and some will die before they can get one. Because the waiting list is so long, you must have a very high MELD score (in the 30s) to get a transplant at these transplant centers. This is especially true in California and the New York City area where there are long waiting lists. Certain parts of the country have more people awaiting transplant than other parts of the country. In the US there are many more people who need liver transplants than there are donors. People who need a transplant because of liver cancer obtain MELD points differently (not based on blood levels), based on time since being diagnosed with cancer because the longer you have cancer the more likely it will advance and could be fatal. Impaired kidney function is often associated with severe liver disease. * Creatinine, which measures kidney function. * INR (formally known as the prothrombin time), measures the liver’s ability to make blood clotting factors. Lab values used in the MELD calculation: * Bilirubin, which measures how effectively the liver excretes bile. The sickest person in your region get the next compatible cadaver liver first. The sicker you are, the higher your MELD score scores range from 6 (less ill) to 40 (critically ill). (Recipients are also chosen within each ABO blood group and also must be an acceptable body size.) The score uses blood tests to determine how urgently you need a liver transplant within the next three months. Who gets priority for a liver transplant? Throughout the United States, patients waiting for liver transplants are prioritized based on the severity of their illness, as measured by what's called the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. This is based on info from my transplant center here in California. Here is more information about the MELD score and liver transplant that you may find helpful. I have had and have other medical issues since my transplant but they don't appear to be related to my transplant surgery. I am grateful every day to my donor who has allowed me to open my eyes every day for the last 18 months since my life-saving transplant. So my transplant went as well as I reasonably could have expected and it certainly beats the alternative. I have been on every low levels of immunosuppression since my transplant my liver related blood levels are all within normal range and my body has not tried to reject my liver.

It turns out that my new 36 year old female liver is very compatible with my 62 year old body and I had no complications during the surgery or just after my transplant which is where the risk of a cardiac death liver typically occurs. Any liver transplant patient who is close to death will tell you they have thought of that moment dozens of times before it happens. Due to my critical situation I had already decided to accept any liver. You then say whether you want to accept it or not. When you receive the call that a liver is available they tell you the sex and age of the donor and any known risk factors about that liver. Finally after 4 years on the waiting list, kicked off and got back on at the last moment I got to be at the top of the list with a MELD score of 36, so I knew I was going to be offered the next available liver that was blood type O and compatible with my body size at my transplant center. I was told I probably won't survive a few months previously and had been fighting for my life every day that entire year. Yes, I had sign up for about all of 'non-ideal' liver options. Especially the cancer type and stage and when you last had detectable cancer. I have had two different cancers and am an organ donor.

Meld na score interpretation