transplant assessment

[b0nnie12]

hi, i have a close relative who is undergoing assessment for a liver transplant at the moment. we will be told at the end of the 5 days whether he is suitable or not. he is early 40s, has decompendated cirrhosis, had Tips procedure a year ago and has not touch a drop of alcohol since. he has regular bouts of hepatic encephalopathy and also odema in legs and stomach, contacted sepsis twice and he is also diabetic. im worried that because of his other health conditions he wouldnt be a candidate for a transplant. has anyone had similar problems but has still been put on the transplant list? many thanks

[AyrshireK]

All the conditions you mentioned are side effects of the cirrhosis (apart from perhaps the diabetes though it is linked). Generally a transplant is the only method now of treating these conditions - transplant is a life saving operation and generally it is only when people are this poorly that transplant is considered. The more serious the symptoms the more urgent the need. Hopefully your relative will be listed, sometimes the stumbling block might be if they were considered too poorly to survive the operation and post operative period, any other health conditions that might hamper being anaesthetised (heart or lung issues) and if there were any concern about abstinence.

Some centres do give the feed back and the listing decision there and then after a multi-disciplinary meeting (Edinburgh do) other centres do it differently.

Good luck to your relative and all the family supporting. Hope the decision goes the way wanted and a transplant is forthcoming soon.

Katie

[b0nnie12 in reply to AyrshireK]

Thanks for replying. Had first meeting with the transplant coordinator yesterday and will get the verdict on Fri afternoon. Keeping everything crossed its good news.

[Hidden in reply to b0nnie12]

Hi

Im keeping everything crossed for you all, I hope it's good news xxxx

[b0nnie12 in reply to Hidden]

It wasn't the news that we were hoping for but it wasn't a no. They're happy that medically he'd cope with the operation but as he hadn't been to AA or engaged with any addiction services despite him not touching a drop of alcohol in a year that went against him, and also as he has recently seperated from his wife and wasn't living at home the fact that he has no permanent address they weren't happy about that either. So he has to go back through in 3 months and be reassessed. And hopefully he will have a permanent home by then and have a few months of AA and they'll put him on the list then.