liver transplants

Researchers have externally attached a pig liver to a brain-dead human and watched it successfully filter blood. The experiment is a step toward one day trying the technique in patients with liver failure.

According to the hospital, a healthy person donates part of the liver to a patient with a poorly functioning liver. The rest of the donor’s liver will regrow close to full size and capacity a few months after surgery.

It's all highly experimental, but manufacturer Miromatrix is making plans for first-step human testing — an experiment outside a patient's body, to see how well a bioengineered liver can filter blood.

Many transplant centers require people with alcohol-related liver disease to remain sober for half a year, before becoming eligible for the waiting list for a liver. But this thinking may be changing.

An estimated 17,000 Americans are on the waiting list for a liver transplant, and there’s a strong chance that many of them have alcohol-associated liver…

For the roughly 15,000 people who need a liver transplant, it’s a waiting game. With demand for donated livers far outstripping supply, patients may spend…