Also called: Hepatic transplantation
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Liver Transplantation
Your liver is the largest organ inside your body. It helps your body digest food, store energy, and remove poisons. You cannot live without a liver that works. If your liver fails, your doctor may put you on a waiting list for a liver transplant. Doctors do liver transplants when other treatment cannot keep a damaged liver working.
During a liver transplantation, the surgeon removes the diseased liver and replaces it with a healthy one. Most transplant livers come from a donor who has died. Sometimes there is a living donor. This is when a healthy person donates part of his or her liver for a specific patient.
The most common reason for a transplant in adults is cirrhosis. This is scarring of the liver, caused by injury or long-term disease. The most common reason in children is biliary atresia, a disease of the bile ducts.
If you have a transplant, you must take drugs the rest of your life to help keep your body from rejecting the new liver.
It sits within Digestive System and Transplantation and Donation.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Liver Transplantation
1,798 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Prevalence and Development of Liver Dysfunction in Hematopoietic Stem Cell TransplantNational Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
- Immunosuppressant Withdrawal Based on Parenchymal Chimerism in the Liver TransplantationChang Gung Memorial Hospital
- LEOPARD Training and Validation Data Collection StudyAssistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
- LEOPARD Prospective Validation Cohort 1Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
- Mental Health Outcomes and Psychological Evaluation After Liver TransplantationAssistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
- Atezolizumab and Bevacizumab in Combination With Y^90 Radioembolization in HCC for Liver TransplantIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Research already completed
- Prevalence of Hepatitis E During Follow-up Liver and Kidney Transplant Patients in Guadeloupe, French West IndiesCentre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Guadeloupe
- Effect of Digital Follow-up Supported Patient Education on Immunosuppressive Medication Adherence and Quality of Life After Liver TransplantationCansu Yıldız
- Auriculo-Nerve Stimulation on Post-Operative Opioid RequirementJacques E. Chelly
- Effect of Preoperative Carbohydrate Loading on Serum Lactate Levels in Patients Undergoing Donor HepatectomyShifa International Hospital
- Bridge to HOPE: Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion Versus Cold Storage Prior to Liver TransplantationBridge to Life Ltd.
- Isavuconazole Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Transplant RecipientsZhibin Xu
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Getting a New Liver: Facts about Liver TransplantsAmerican Society of Transplantation
- Liver TransplantNational Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Living With
- Liver Transplant: Complications/MedicationsDepartment of Veterans Affairs
- Liver Transplant: NutritionDepartment of Veterans Affairs
Related Issues
- LiverHealth Resources and Services Administration
- Questions and Answers for Transplant Candidates about Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Pediatric End-Stage Liver Disease (PELD)United Network for Organ Sharing
Statistics and Research
- OPTN/SRTR Annual Data ReportScientific Registry of Transplant Recipients
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Liver TransplantationNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Liver Transplantation. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Liver Transplantation, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.