Orthotopic liver transplantation in a young adult (33 years old) using an 84-year-old donor

Shortage of liver donors and the increasing number of patients on the waiti ng list for liver transplantation have led to a widening of the definition of liver donor suitability. Although the age limit for liver donors is cont roversial, current opinion is towards using liver allografts from donors ol der than 60 years. However, to date only a few cases that showed a good per formance of liver graft by donors older than 60 years have been described. In this case report, orthotopic liver transplantation in a 33-year-old pati ent who received a graft from an 84-year-old donor is presented. A careful evaluation of the conventional donor-related risk factors (hemodynamics, he patic function and histologic features) was carried out. Moreover, free rad ical scavenger glutathione was measured before cold ischemia and at the tim e of reperfusion in hepatic biopsies. After a 1-year followup, the recipien t exhibits good general conditions and normal liver function values.