[Living donor liver transplantation: the decision experience]

Living donor liver transplantation is a treatment choice for end-stage liver disease patients who face a shortage of currently available donated livers. The decision process involved in living donor organ donation has been described as a complicate process within the family of the patient. Donors have expressed willingness to donate a part of their own living liver in order to ensure the health of a loved one or relative when such a proposition was raised by the attending physician. Such decisions were taken even in the face of certain struggle, fear and ambiguous feelings. Donation decisions may be reinforced through feelings of confidence and trust in the physician and positive evaluations of the risk to donor health of making a 'living' donation. Necessary surgery will impact not only the recipient and donor but also family members. Staff on the transplantation team should make greater efforts to explore perceptions and concerns within families of living donors in order to deliver effective evidence-based care.