Donor assessment scores: relevance and complete irrelevance

1. Donor assessment scores can be used to prognosticate recipient outcomes but are often not clinically relevant. 2. The donor risk index, the survival outcomes following liver transplantation score, and the Donor Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score have specific advantages and disadvantages with respect to accuracy and ease of use. 3. The significance of the donor assessment is undermined by an allocation system that sometimes limits ideal donor-recipient matching and whose sole objective is the minimization of wait-list mortality instead of the benefit of transplantation.