Expect six months or more of recovery time before you'll feel fully healed after your liver transplant surgery. You may be able to resume normal activities or go back to work a few months after surgery.
Recovery after liver transplantation depends in part on how ill the patient was prior to surgery. Most patients are hospitalized for seven to 10 days after liver transplant. Afterward, they generally recuperate at home and typically return to work or school after about three months.
If your recovery is going well, after 8 weeks, you will usually be encouraged to start moderate exercise. This could be walking, jogging, swimming or cycling. Most sports and activities are possible but you should avoid heavy contact sports (rugby, martial arts, boxing) as these risk damaging your liver transplant.
You can expect to be in hospital for 7-14 days after a liver transplant. The first few days are spent in the intensive care unit to allow the extensive monitoring that is required. If you are recovering well from the surgery, the transplant team will be happy for you to be discharged home.
Your Recovery
Your doctor will take out your diseased liver when you get a donor liver. Your belly and side will be sore for the first 1 to 2 weeks after surgery. You also may have some numbness around the cut (incision) the doctor made.
Recovering from a liver transplant can be a long process, but most people will eventually be able to return to most of their normal activities and have a good quality of life. It can take up to a year to fully recover, although you'll usually be able to start gradually building up your activities after a few weeks.
However, a liver transplant is a major operation that carries a risk of some potentially serious complications. These can occur during, soon after, or several years after the procedure. Some of the main problems associated with liver transplants include: your body rejecting the new liver.
A liver transplant is a big operation that has a risk of some serious complications. These can happen during, soon after, or even years afterwards. Some of the main complications and risks of a liver transplant are: your body attacking the new liver (rejection)
There is pain after liver transplant surgery, however it is generally not as severe as with other abdominal surgeries. This is because nerves are severed during the initial abdominal incision causing numbness of the skin around the abdomen. These nerves regenerate over the following six months and sensation returns.
In general, your diet after liver transplant should be low in salt, cholesterol, fat and sugar. To prevent damaging your new liver, it's important to avoid alcohol. Do not drink alcoholic beverages or use alcohol in cooking.
If your liver transplant was due to an alcohol-related disease, you must never drink alcohol again as you risk harming your transplanted liver. This also applies if alcohol was thought to have contributed to your liver disease, even if it was not the main cause.
The duration of liver transplant surgery depends on how complex your case is. On average, the surgery can take between 6-12 hours.
The average length of stay in the ICU is two days, after which you will be transferred to the medical floor/ transplant unit.
Liver transplant survival statistics
According to a study , people who have a liver transplant have an 89% percent chance of living after one year. The five-year survival rate is 75 percent . Sometimes the transplanted liver can fail, or the original disease may return.
This informal policy, often called "the 6-month rule," can be traced to the 1980s. The thinking was that six months of abstinence gave a patient's liver time to heal and, thus, avoid a transplant. If that didn't work, the patient would have proven they can stay sober and would not return to drinking after a transplant.
Throughout the United States, patients waiting for liver transplants are prioritized based on the severity of their illness, as measured by what's called the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. The score uses blood tests to determine how urgently you need a liver transplant within the next three months.
Part B covers certain doctors' services, outpatient care, medical supplies, and preventive services. covers: Doctors' services associated with heart, lung, kidney, pancreas, intestine, and liver organ transplants.
In adults, chronic liver failure due to cir- rhosis caused by hepatitis C is the most common reason for liver transplantation in the United States. The second most common reason is cirrhosis caused by long-term alcohol abuse.
Surgical Procedure
The short, straight portion of the incision that extends up to the breastbone is 3 to 4 inches long. The incision from one side of the rib cage to the other is from 12 to 16 inches long.
Rejection happens in up to 30 in 100 patients. The risk of rejection is highest in the first 6 months after a transplant. After this time, your body's immune system is less likely to recognise the liver as coming from another person. Chronic rejection happens in 2 in 100 patients.
The donor must be in the right age group which is normally between the ages of 18 to 60, although exceptions may be made if the circumstances demand.
To help care for your liver, you will need to:
Eat a healthy diet, exercise, not smoke cigarettes and not drink alcohol. Contact your doctor if you are feeling ill. Have your labs drawn as directed by your doctor, including any additional testing. Follow lifting, walking, showering and activity restrictions.
Cancer is a significant cause of illness and death in liver transplant patients. Following liver transplant, the risk of developing cancers rises for nearly all types of cancers, but more commonly skin cancer, lymphoma and smoking-related cancers.
Liver donation risks
Living liver donation may also cause bile leakage, narrowing of the bile duct, intra-abdominal bleeding and, in rare cases, inadequate growth of the remaining part of the liver.