Candidates for a liver transplant require a comprehensive evaluation. The process includes patient education, medical records review, and patient examination. The patient meets with several members of the transplant team, including a transplant coordinator, hepatologist, surgeon, social worker, and nurse educator. The evaluation appointment involves various tests, such as blood tests, chest x-ray, urinalysis, drug screening, and Alpha Fetoprotein (to check for liver cancer). The case is reviewed by our multidisciplinary transplant team, and a decision about the patient’s suitability for an organ is made.

Each member of the multidisciplinary team at the Transplant Center is a specialized expert dedicated to transplant patients, including subspecialist radiologists. We have the largest concentration of liver MRI radiologists in the region—experts who only read MRIs. We also maintain the latest equipment for the best possible imaging.

Our dedicated transplant coordinators are the first contact for patients. Each patient is assigned a specific coordinator who will be your point person for anything regarding your care, from pre- to post-transplant. Their responsibilities include answering questions, completing everything needed for you to be listed, ensuring periodic testing is scheduled, helping with medications, and alerting your medical team if you are undergoing treatment for other health issues.

One of our greatest priorities is to provide education and support to our patients and their supporters before and after transplant. We provide a Patient Education Guide and offer a weekly support group where patients and families can learn more about the process and engage with others. We also offer peer mentoring by former liver transplant recipients. For patients living outside the area, we connect them with local transplant recipients for peer mentoring. Family members have several housing options while in Ann Arbor for the operation and hospitalizations, including the Med Inn hotel located on the medical campus.

Once you’ve been listed, our team provides ongoing medical care to ensure you are as healthy as possible for your transplant. This care includes testing as needed, treatment for health issues, and communication with your local hepatologist. Each patient is assigned a hepatologist from the start of the process and throughout their care to ensure continuity.

If the transplant team determines you aren’t ready to be listed, it may be due to your health or liver disease that can be treated. Our goal is to optimize your condition so you qualify for listing and have better outcomes after transplant. This may involve improving nutrition, increasing activity levels, stopping smoking, and optimizing medical care.

The transplant center offers treatments to delay the need for a liver transplant or prolong life while waiting for a donor liver. These include:

• Medications for liver diseases such as hepatitis B and C and autoimmune disorders.
• Treatments for liver tumors to make transplantation possible.
• Bioartificial liver devices to support patients with acute liver failure.
• Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) for patients with cirrhosis to manage fluid buildup or gastrointestinal bleeding.

When a donor liver becomes available, the patient is admitted to the hospital. The operation typically lasts six hours, during which the recipient’s liver and gallbladder are removed, and the donor liver is transplanted. Post-surgery, patients spend about four days in the ICU and 10 days on the transplant floor.

After a liver transplant, patients are seen frequently during the first three months. An individualized care plan is developed, and eventually, patients transition back to their local hepatologist’s care. Periodic visits to the University Hospital’s transplant clinic are required, typically reducing over time to once or twice per year. Physical therapy and visiting nurse services may also support recovery.