Donors for Liver Transplantation

There is good evidence that the decade of the 1980s will witness an expansion of efforts to transplant extrarenal organs. This will have a profound effect in pediatrics, and particularly in the field of hepatology. The number of infants born with biliary atresia is not known with certainty, but it is likely that there are approximately 500 new cases each year in the United States. The number of lethal hepatic based inborn errors of metabolism that can be effectively treated with liver replacement has steadily grown. Other acquired hepatic disorders are not uncommon in infancy and childhood. If transplantation of the liver (or of the kidney, heart, intestine, pancreas, and possibly other organs) is to reach its full potential, pediatricians will have to be more acutely aware of the need for organs, and will need to collaborate actively in the procurement process.