Transplantation of the liver

Liver transplantation has had a long gestation period in being accepted as standard therapy. The main reason for this is the formidable operation to which the patient is subjected and because of this, referral of cases tends to be too late. Increasing confidence in the operation should result in earlier surgery. The low incidence of uncontrollable rejection is an encouraging finding which should, in the future, make the results of grafting for nonmalignant parenchymatous liver disease better than those currently obtained with kidney grafts from cadaver donors. The surgery requires a large team of strongly motivated doctors, nurses and technicians, who must have continuing experience with technically successful orthotopic liver grafts in experimental animals.