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Liver transplantation in children: state of the art and future perspectives
  1. Rohit Kohli1,
  2. Miriam Cortes2,
  3. N D Heaton2,
  4. Anil Dhawan3
  1. 1 Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  2. 2 Department of Adult and Pediatric Liver Transplant Surgery, Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College Hospital, London, UK
  3. 3 Pediatrics Liver GI and Nutrition Centre and MowatLabs, King’s College Hospital, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Anil Dhawan, Director Pediatric Liver GI and Nutrition Center and Alex Mowat Laboratory, Clinical Director Child Health, King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London; anil.dhawan{at}nhs.net

Abstract

In this review, we provide a state of the art of liver transplantation in children, as the procedure is now carried out for more than 30 years and most of our paediatric colleagues are managing these patients jointly with liver transplant centres. Our goal for this article is to enhance the understanding of the liver transplant process that a child and his family goes through while explaining the surgical advances and the associated complications that could happen in the immediate or long-term follow-up. We have deliberately introduced the theme that ‘liver transplant is a disease’ and ‘not a cure’, to emphasise the need for adherence with immunosuppression, a healthy lifestyle and lifelong medical follow-up.

  • liver disease
  • paediatric transplant
  • auxiliary liver transplantation
  • complications

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Footnotes

  • Contributors We thank Dr Hector Vilca-Melendez for his contribution with the figures for this paper.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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