Risk of early death 1.7 per 1,000 donors, but long-term mortality similar to healthy controls
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- The risk of early death for live liver donors is 1.7 per 1,000 donors, and long-term mortality is similar to that of healthy individuals, according to a study published in the February issue of Gastroenterology.
To estimate the risk of perioperative and long-term mortality for live liver donors, Abimereki D. Muzaale, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and associates followed 4,111 donors who donated part of their liver between April 1994 and March 2011 for a mean of 7.6 years. Survival data were compared with healthy National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III participants and live kidney donors.
The researchers found that seven of the donors had early deaths (1.7 per 1,000). The risk of death did not vary with recipient age or portion of liver donated. Eleven of the live liver donors had catastrophic events during the study period (2.9 early deaths or acute liver failures per 1,000); and the risk did not vary with recipient age or portion of liver donated. For live liver donors, long-term mortality was comparable to live kidney donors and NHANES participants (1.2, 1.2, and 1.4 percent at 11 years, respectively; P = 0.9).
"Long-term survival among live liver donors is equivalent to that among healthy matched live kidney donors and healthy matched individuals in general," the authors write.
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