Use of donation after circulatory death donors in pediatric liver transplantation

Abstract

After advancement of technical aspects, use of well-established and novel immunosuppressive therapies, and better pre and postoperative care, which resulted in high overall survival rates with liver transplantation, waiting list mortality has become the main issue for pediatric patients with end stage liver disease. Insufficient organ donors have become a challenging issue especially in the pediatric patient population, for whom size match of donor or graft is harder to achieve. In order to expand the donor pool and decrease the gap between the demand and supply of donor organs, use of donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors have been proportionally increased. In this chapter we aim to discuss current practices, issues and outcomes with DCD in pediatric liver transplantation, as well as future strategies for improvement of results.