An increase in deceased donor incidence alleviated the need for urgent adult living donor liver transplantation in a Korean high-volume center.

Objective: This study analyzed the effects of a recent increase in deceased donors on the pattern of adult liver transplantation (OLT) in a high-volume center in Korea.

Methods: OLT patterns relative to pretransplant recipient status were analyzed for 112 deceased donor LTs (DDLT) and 743 living donor OLT (LDLT) in a single center as compared to nationwide Korean data over 3 years from 2006 to 2008.

Results: During the study period, the annual proportion of institutional urgent OLT was relatively invariable (20% to 25.2%), but the annual proportion of DDLTs to all OLT increased from 8.9% to 19.9%, as did the annual rate of DDLTs among those undergoing urgent OLT, from 18.6% to 65.8%, with a reciprocal decrease in the proportion of urgent LDLTs. Korean nationwide data also showed a noticeable increase in deceased liver graft allocation for urgency from 39.8% to 62.2% over the same time period.

Conclusions: An increase in deceased donors up to 5 per million enabled an increase in urgent adult DDLTs, alleviating the need for urgent adult LDLTs in Korea.