Pediatric liver transplantation

The excellent survival rates that have been achieved by pediatric liver transplantation today can be attributed to a multitude of factors. Refinements in immunosuppressive regimens, new immunosuppressive agents, improvements in surgical technique, and a better understanding of the unique issues that pertain to patient care have resulted in not only excellent survival rates, but also improvements in quality of life. The future promises even more progress in the directions of tolerance induction, expansion of the donor organ pool, and genetic manipulation allowing cellular transplantation for correction of inborn errors of metabolism.