Liver Transplantation in the 21st Century: Expanding the Donor Options

The large imbalance between the growing pool of potential liver transplant recipients and the scarcity of donor organs has fueled efforts to maximize existing donors and identify new sources. This article reviews the current state of liver transplantation using allografts from extended criteria donors and from donation after cardiac death, as well as the use of partial allografts (split liver and living-donor liver transplantation). The authors explore the innovation in transplantation geared toward increasing the donor pool and the issues pertaining to matching of these grafts to suitable recipients.