Doctor discusses living liver transplant

Dr. R. Mark Ghobrial

Peter Tasker, 23, attended Transplant Recipients International Organization’s (TRIO) last meeting of the summer to learn more about undergoing surgery to remove a portion of his healthy liver to save the life of his sister, Wendy Babb, 35, who needs a liver transplant.

R. Mark Ghobrial, M.D., Ph.D., addressed the Ventura County/West Valley Chapter of TRIO on ‘‘Living-Related Liver Transplantation: The Answer to Organ Donor Shortage?’’

Ghobrial is the director of the Adult Living-Related Liver Transplant division of the Dumont-UCLA Center for Transplantation.

‘‘This is extremely controversial, but we control psychosocial factors as well as medical factors in evaluating a living donor candidate. Our success rate has been 100 percent because we are very selective about candidates,’’ Ghobrial said.

Some of the criteria for a living -related donor area are that the donor must be healthy and fit between the ages of 30 and 55, and have a family relationship to the transplant patient to help ensure against exploitation. Then the prospective donor is evaluated for matching such as blood type and other factors.

‘‘Considering that Southern California ranks 57th out of 60 in organ donations per million population, it is not surprising that this new method has developed,’’ said Cynthia Hutchison, TRIO boardmember and liver transplant recipient.

‘‘Our group devotes itself to organ donor awareness projects, but the need for organ donation is at an unprecedented crisis level.’’

Living-related donors could fill the gap between the donor shortage and the tremendous need for transplants.

Currently, 75,000 patients are waiting for a transplant, with more than 10,000 patients awaiting liver transplantation.

Five families attended Ghobrial’s talk specifically to learn more about how they could help their family member who needs a liver transplant.

‘‘The liver is a miraculous organ. Living-related donors could expect their own liver to grow back to its full capacity in one to three months. The donated portion of the liver should grow into a complete new liver in the transplanted patient,’’ Ghobrial said.

‘‘The waiting times for a cadaveric liver is three years. Transplant patients can often deteriorate or die during that long of a wait. With living-related donation, we can transplant patients at their healthiest with a 1 percent to 3 percent risk to the living-related donors. These are extremely good odds,’’ Ghobrial said.

‘‘But we always ask that the potential donor contact us first. There was a very sad case recently. A transplant patient called me and excitedly told me there was a family member who was willing to donate part of his liver. I said for him to call me, but he never did.’’

For more information about living-related donation for liver transplant patients, please call Dr. Mark Ghobrial of UCLA at (310) 825-8138.

TRIO will be meeting again at 7 p.m. the first and third Fridays beginning in September at 1 GTE Place in Westlake Village. For information about TRIO, please call Jackie Colleran at (805) 492-9810.