‘Race not an issue’ in liver transplant process

The ethnic background of people needing liver transplants has no bearing on how long they will be on the waiting list or how successful the operation will be, according to new research.

Examining the experiences of 274 patients of Caucasian, Asian and African-American origin, the study looked at individuals who were on the liver transplant waiting list between 1996 and 2005 as a result of contracting the hepatitis B virus.

It was led by Natalie Bzowej from California Pacific Medical Center and Anna Lok from the University of Michigan, who found that there was a similar waiting time and post-transplant outcome regardless of the race of the patient.

“Our research showed transplant indication and model for endstage liver disease score for endstage cirrhosis patients were the only predictors of transplantation, but race was not,” the researchers concluded.

Recent research from the University of Washington suggested that having a healthy body mass index is important before receiving liver transplant surgery.