Living liver donation
During your lifetime, you can donate part of your liver to a patient who is ill. This is called living liver donation. Read more about it here.
The liver is a remarkable organ. If a part is removed, the liver can grow back into a normally functioning liver within a few weeks. Therefore, you can donate part of your liver during your lifetime. This helps someone who is seriously ill.
Donating part of your liver
Living liver donation does not happen very often: about thirty times a year. People often choose to donate during their lifetime because someone in their circle is seriously ill, such as a child, partner, or friend. You can also donate a piece of your liver to someone you do not know.
Read more here about who you can donate to
Not everyone who wants to donate a piece of their liver can become a donor. There are a number of requirements you must meet. For example, you must be at least 18 years old, choose to donate voluntarily, and be healthy. There must also be a match between you and the recipient of the liver.
'With the transplant, Lorenzo was born again'
Baby Lorenzo is alive thanks to a liver donation from a living donor.
Read Lorenzo's story
Find out if you can donate
When someone expresses a desire at the hospital to donate part of their liver, doctors investigate whether they can be a suitable donor. Not everyone who wants to donate a piece of their liver can actually become a donor.
During the examinations, a thorough check is performed to see if the donor is healthy enough to donate and has no underlying diseases, and whether there is a match with the organ recipient. The potential donor also speaks with a social worker and a psychologist. This is to determine whether the person understands the consequences of the donation and is mentally strong enough to go through the process. The exact procedure of the examinations varies by hospital. The specialists at the transplant hospital will provide more information about the required examinations.
The donor may stop the donation process at any time during the preparation phase, even right before the surgery. The doctors at the hospital will always respect that.
Surgery for donating part of the liver
During the surgery, the surgeon removes a part of the liver. If you donate a part of your liver to a child, this is twenty to forty percent of your liver. If you donate to an adult, about sixty percent of your liver is removed. The surgeon also removes the gallbladder during the operation.
Like other surgeries, this donor operation is not without risks. The specialists in the hospital discuss the risks of living liver donation with the donor. Very occasionally, it turns out during the surgery that the transplantation cannot proceed after all.
Annemieke donated a piece of her liver to her daughter
When daughter Abigail needed a liver transplant, Annemieke immediately said: she is getting a piece of my liver. And so it happened. But she only discovered later that this was not logical at all.
Read Annemieke's story
Recovering after living liver donation
After the surgery, the donor is also temporarily a patient who must recover from an operation. The donor usually stays in the hospital for about ten days. Liver donors often experience pain for several days after the surgery; sometimes that pain is difficult to manage. This is because the donor cannot have very many painkillers since the liver is currently working less well.
After the hospital stay, recovery takes several more weeks. The donor may then need help, for example with housework, and is usually unable to work. There are compensations available for extra help needed after the donation. You can read more about that on the website of the Dutch Transplantation Foundation