title: Perceptions of post-transplant recidivism in liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease.
abstract: Although alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is regarded as a common indication for liver transplantation (LT), debatable issues exist on the requirement for preceding alcoholic abstinence, appropriate indication criteria, predictive factors for alcoholic recidivism, and outcomes following living-donor LT. In most institutions, an abstinence period of six months before LT has been adopted as a mandatory selection criterion. Data indicating that pre-transplant abstinence is an associated predictive factor for alcoholic recidivism supports the reasoning behind this. However, conclusive evidence about the benefit of adopting an abstinence period is yet to be established. On the other hand, a limited number of reports available on living-donor LT experiences for ALD patients suggest that organ donations from relatives have no suppressive effect on alcoholic recidivism. Prevention of alcoholic recidivism has proved to be the most important treatment after LT based on the resultant inferior long-term outcome of patients. Further evaluations are still needed to establish strategies before and after LT for ALD.
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshikuni
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawaguchi
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugawara
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuhisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akamatsu
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Sumihito
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Taku
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.affiliation: Yoshikuni Kawaguchi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Junichi Kaneko, Sumihito Tamura, Taku Aoki, Yoshihiro Sakamoto, Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Norihiro Kokudo, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kokudo
keywords: Abstinence; Alcoholic liver disease; Liver transplantation; Six-month rule