Liver Transplant
Used in refractory cases, when complications of progressive liver disease become apparent, or if there is the development of or concern for the development of cancer (usually PFIC2).
Center-specific modifications to the transplant surgery may be performed in PFIC1 to enable modified biliary drainage post-transplant to ameliorate post-transplant complications such as worsening diarrhea and fatty change in the transplanted liver.
A surgery where the whole liver is removed and replaced with a donor liver.
Your Experience
Matters
Recorded: 7
Community
Experiences
PFIC patients & the community have
reported the following experiences:
Benefits
- Often complete reduction of itch.
- Improvement of sleep quality and family quality of life.
- Improvement of growth and development.
- Improvement of energy and focus.
- Reduction of diarrhea.
- Improvement of vitamin absorption.
- Improved immune response due to increased liver health.
- Elimination of need for g-tube feeding.
Burdens
- Financial burden (depending on location may not be fully covered by insurance).
- Emotional burden of caring for child during surgery.
- Concerns regarding long-term health effects of post-transplant medications.
- Lifelong burden of numerous post-transplant medications, blood tests (inc. GFR, liver biopsy, scans, etc.).
- Increased frequency and severity of illnesses due to immunosuppression.
- Early and late post-operative complications, including acute liver rejection, internal hemorrhage, intestinal blockages created by scar tissue from surgery, pneumothorax (collapsed lung), biliary strictures, kidney malfunction (due to immunosuppressive medication), post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD), and skin cancer (immunosuppressive medication increases sun sensitivity).
Impacted Areas
of Patient Life
Of the six main areas mainly affected by PFIC, patients & the community have identified the areas impacted by this medication.
Resources
If you’d like to learn more you can
do so by visiting our Resource page.
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