title: Estimates of early death, acute liver failure, and long-term mortality among live liver donors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to estimate the risk of perioperative mortality or acute liver failure for live liver donors in the United States and avoid selection or ascertainment biases and sample size limitations.
  
  
  METHODS
  We followed up 4111 live liver donors in the United States between April 1994 and March 2011 for a mean of 7.6 years; deaths were determined from the Social Security Death Master File. Survival data were compared with those from live kidney donors and healthy participants of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven donors had early deaths (1.7 per 1000; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7-3.5); risk of death did not vary with age of the liver recipient (1.7 per 1000 for adults vs 1.6 per 1000 for pediatric recipients; P = .9) or portion of liver donated (2.0 per 1000 for left lateral segment, 2.8 per 1000 for left lobe, and 1.5 per 1000 for right lobe; P = .8). There were 11 catastrophic events (early deaths or acute liver failures; 2.9 per 1000; 95% CI, 1.5-5.1); similarly, risk did not vary with recipient age (3.1 per 1000 adult vs 1.6 per 1000 pediatric; P = .4) or portion of liver donated (2.0 per 1000 for left lateral segment, 2.8 per 1000 for left lobe, and 3.3 per 1000 for right lobe; P = .9). Long-term mortality of live liver donors was comparable to that of live kidney donors and NHANES participants (1.2%, 1.2%, and 1.4% at 11 years, respectively; P = .9).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The risk of early death among live liver donors in the United States is 1.7 per 1000 donors. Mortality of live liver donors does not differ from that of healthy, matched individuals over a mean of 7.6 years.
authors: Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
authors: Abimereki D
authors: AD
authors: Muzaale
authors: Nabil N
authors: NN
authors: Dagher
authors: Robert A
authors: RA
authors: Montgomery
authors: Sarah E
authors: SE
authors: Taranto
authors: Maureen A
authors: MA
authors: McBride
authors: Dorry L
authors: DL
authors: Segev
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D017114:Liver Failure, Acute / Q000209:etiology*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D012306:Risk; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000401:mortality; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult