Certain chronic (long-term) and acute (sudden) medical conditions can cause your liver to stop working. This is called liver failure. And while liver failure can be a serious threat to your health, a liver transplant can offer hope for a fuller, longer life.
At Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Surgery Institute, our surgeons regularly and successfully perform liver transplants on patients with complex conditions. We use innovative treatments, including stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), to help make liver transplant an option for more patients with liver cancer.
Based at Allegheny General Hospital, our dedicated transplant team offers comprehensive liver transplant care that’s personalized to your needs. Our multidisciplinary specialists work together to make lifesaving liver transplant possible for as many patients as possible.
Highlights of our program include:
Our care teams carefully evaluate your condition and circumstances before they decide if liver transplantation is right for you. Our surgeons perform liver transplant surgeries to successfully treat several conditions that may lead to liver failure, including:
You will need to undergo extensive testing before we can decide if a liver transplant is right for you. Coordinating this testing when you’re sick can be difficult. That’s why our team goes the extra mile to make the evaluation process easier for patients and families.
We’ll help you set up appointments and guide you to resources that may help you. Learn more about the transplant process in our patient guide to liver transplant.
The abdominal transplant team at Allegheny Health Network is one of the few medical centers around the country that perform living donor liver transplants, a highly sophisticated procedure that provides an additional life-saving option for some patients with end-stage liver disease.
Living liver donation surgery requires comprehensive pre-transplant screening and planning protocols as well as precise coordination by the transplant team at the time of surgery. Surgeons begin by removing part of a person’s healthy liver – up to 65 percent – and using the partial liver to replace the recipient’s diseased liver. The procedures occur simultaneously. In the following few weeks, the livers of both the donor and recipient will regrow to the size of normal livers.
A liver transplant can be lifesaving for patients with liver cancer. It is the only treatment that can remove both the cancerous tumors and the entire diseased liver. But patients must meet strict requirements to be eligible for liver transplant.
To help patients with liver cancer become candidates for transplant, our surgeons are pioneering the use of innovative treatment techniques. SBRT is a noninvasive treatment that kills cancer cells using high doses of radiation. Because SBRT directs radiation right at the tumor, it is highly effective while helping patients avoid severe side effects.
SBRT allows you to effectively treat liver cancer on an outpatient basis while you wait for a donor organ to become available. Learn more about liver cancer treatment.
Call (412) 359-5017 or request an appointment to learn more about AHN liver transplant services.
