Patients were stratified by MELD-Na score. Excluded were those with prior kidney/liver transplants and those listed for multiorgan transplant or re-transplant. LDLT is typically offered to patients with these lower scores, given that they are less likely to be offered a full organ from a deceased donor, and due to the idea that they may better tolerate a partial graft.įor their study, Malamon and colleagues conducted a retrospective, secondary analysis of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipient database, which included 119,275 liver transplant candidates from 2012 to 2021. Scores of 20 or higher on the MELD-Na (which ranges from 6-40) are associated with a higher risk of death, Malamon's group noted, and individuals with low scores are often overlooked and not prioritized for transplant. "This study's findings definitively demonstrate the association of a marked benefit in survival and life-years with receipt of an LDLT." "Many in the transplant community have questioned the risks and benefits of a transplant for patients with lower MELD-Na scores, particularly given previous studies with deceased donors," the team wrote in JAMA Surgery. Their study looked at nearly 120,000 waitlist patients, 2.3% of whom ultimately underwent LDLT, and found that these transplants were associated with significant reductions in mortality at 1 year among patients with a MELD-Na of 11 or higher:
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