The liver performs a number of crucial functions in the body, including cleaning the blood, fighting infections, synthesizing protein, storing energy and producing chemicals necessary for digestion. A variety of diseases, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, can cause the liver to fail.

Liver transplantation is a surgical procedure that places a healthy donor liver from another person into a patient whose liver has failed. The transplanted liver is connected to blood vessels and bile ducts and resumes its normal tasks inside its new body.

Donor livers usually come from a person who has died and who registered to be an organ donor while still living, which is called deceased donor donation.

The Process of Liver Transplantation

The Liver Transplant Program at Rush University Medical Center offers liver transplantation from deceased donors for patients with liver failure.

At Rush, this procedure is part of a process that involves preparation, surgery and follow-up. Click the links below for more information about each step in this process:

• Initial visit
• Pretransplant evaluation 
• Waiting for a donor liver
• Preparing for a transplant
• Transplant surgery
• After surgery

(Return to the Liver Transplant Program home page)