Questions are being raised about the case of a 36-year-old Ontario woman who died of liver failure after she was rejected for a life-saving liver transplant after a medical review highlighted her prior alcohol use.
Something interesting about the liver is that we can regrow it. So it might be possible to take a portion of a liver, put it in another person, and then both those pieces grow into a full or well-enough-functioning liver. I’m not a physician and I don’t know if such a procedure has ever been attempted.
I believe that’s an established procedure. Both the donor and the recipient regrow full livers from the portion they have. You can only donate once though because of how the new liver tissue is structured. I believe the arteries in the new one aren’t in the same place.
Edit: if you read the article it actually tells you her boyfriend was willing to be a live donor.
maybe this is a joke going over my head but you just described a liver transplant. what blew my mind was learning that they don’t take the old liver out, they just squish the new one(the healthy liver sliver if you will) in and let it do it’s thing
My understanding is that’s the case with kidneys as well. If there’s enough room, they don’t bother removing the old organ because that just introduces more chances to make a mistake.
Somehow I read the article thinkingshe had a kidney problem which we have two of.
How can her boyfriend even donate his liver? Wouldn’t he die?
Something interesting about the liver is that we can regrow it. So it might be possible to take a portion of a liver, put it in another person, and then both those pieces grow into a full or well-enough-functioning liver. I’m not a physician and I don’t know if such a procedure has ever been attempted.
I believe that’s an established procedure. Both the donor and the recipient regrow full livers from the portion they have. You can only donate once though because of how the new liver tissue is structured. I believe the arteries in the new one aren’t in the same place.
Edit: if you read the article it actually tells you her boyfriend was willing to be a live donor.
maybe this is a joke going over my head but you just described a liver transplant. what blew my mind was learning that they don’t take the old liver out, they just squish the new one(the healthy liver sliver if you will) in and let it do it’s thing
My understanding is that’s the case with kidneys as well. If there’s enough room, they don’t bother removing the old organ because that just introduces more chances to make a mistake.
Seems like we knew about stem cells before we even knew what they were…