Problem of living liver donation in the absence of deceased liver transplantation program: Mansoura experience

We report our experience with potential donors for living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), which is the first report from an area where there is no legalized deceased donation program. This is a single center retrospective analysis of potential living donors (n = 1004) between May 2004 and December 2012. This report focuses on the analysis of causes, duration, cost, and various implications of donor exclusion (n = 792). Most of the transplant candidates (82.3%) had an experience with more than one excluded donor (median = 3). Some recipients travelled abroad for a deceased donor transplant (n = 12) and some died before finding a suitable donor (n = 14). The evaluation of an excluded donor is a time-consuming process (median = 3 d, range 1 d to 47 d). It is also a costly process with a median cost of approximately 70 USD (range 35 USD to 885 USD). From these results, living donor exclusion has negative implications on the patients and transplant program with ethical dilemmas and an economic impact. Many strategies are adopted by other centers to expand the donor pool; however, they are not all applicable in our locality. We conclude that an active legalized deceased donor transplantation program is necessary to overcome the shortage of available liver grafts in Egypt.