Why is it possible to perform a liver transplant using just a small part of a donor’s liver, but for other organs (kidney, heart, etc) the donor would have to donate the whole organ?
In: 539
Liver donor here: It’s not a small part, it’s 2/3 of the donor liver. They left me 1/3 and gave the person I donated to the larger portion to help ensure that it survived. Both pieces grow to about 90% of the original size, but not 100% due to some scar tissue that forms from the dissection.
The liver is the only organ that can regrow like that, even the skin would have a huge amount of scar tissue without a graft if you took off a legs worth of skin at once.
(My numbers are from the early 2k’s when I donated, if it’s changed since then, I’m sure someone will correct me.)
Latest Answers