ASSESSMENT OF LIVER-FUNCTION - PRETRANSPLANT AND PERITRANSPLANT EVALUATION

Liver transplantation has been demonstrated to be a successful therape utic modality for patients with endstage liver disease. The high rate of survival for an otherwise terminal condition has resulted in signif icant expansion of the indications and diseases treated by this proced ure, and is hampered only by the limited numbers of organs available f or transplantation. Efforts in clinical and laboratory medicine should be directed to identify candidates who would benefit most from this p rocedure, to provide better means for accurate assessment of liver res erve and the appropriate timing for transplantation, to identify quali ty liver grafts that would have the potential to tolerate cold preserv ation and reperfusion injury, and to assist in accurate monitoring of graft function immediately after transplantation. The aim of this manu script is to describe the existing pathways for clinical and laborator y assessment of pretransplant residual liver function, the donor liver graft, and immediate posttransplantation function.