Liver Transplant

AASLT – The Trusted Liver Transplant Facility in India

No one can live without a working liver. If it stops functioning, it needs to be replaced or transplanted. AASLT@Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital is formed and run by experts who have over two decades of experience providing liver transplantation and treatment for every liver and biliary disease, such as cancer, in children and adults.

At AASLT@Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital, liver transplant in Delhi NCR is carried out by the most compassionate and experienced team of experts with excellent records in diagnosis, patient care and outcomes. The hospital has state-of-the-art facilities and a multidisciplinary team of experts who deal with the whole spectrum of liver conditions requiring surgical treatment.

AASLT@Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital is one of the few centres in India where minimally invasive donor surgery (Scar-free) for living donor liver transplantation is also carried out. Minimally invasive donor surgery is carried out either purely laparoscopically or with robotic assistance. Our liver transplant team in Delhi has performed over 2500 transplants and has a successful transplant program catering to patients with serious liver conditions.

What Is a Liver Transplant

A liver transplant is a surgical intervention to replace a diseased or affected liver from another person. The transplant process can be for the entire liver or a part of it. A healthy liver comes from a living or dead donor. Surgeons remove the patient’s diseased liver through an incision in the upper abdomen, and a new liver is placed.

Liver failure can be acute (sudden) due to conditions like drug-induced infection and viral hepatitis. It can also be chronic (developing slowly) because of Wilson’s disease, alcoholism, Hemochromatosis, and early-stage liver cancer.

AASLT@Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital is the best liver transplant hospital in Delhi, which through its advanced surgical procedures, gives hope for a better life to numerous people suffering from life-threatening liver diseases.

Conditions That Need a Liver Transplant

A liver transplant becomes necessary when this organ fails to perform 85 to 90% of its functions. Liver damage because of alcoholism, chronic hepatitis B or C infections, and acute liver failure. It can also occur due to congenital disabilities of the bile ducts. Liver failure results in many health issues. These include malnutrition, blood clotting, jaundice, and bleeding from the digestive tract.

Sometimes, you can get a suitable match for the organ for a liver transplant. But you may not be fit for the procedure. This usually happens when a certain condition decreases the chances of the surgery’s success rate. So, it is essential to check and confirm with a surgeon at a trusted liver transplant hospital in Delhi if you are eligible for the procedure.

Types of Liver Transplant at AASLT

1. Pediatric Liver Transplant

Pediatric Liver Transplant is a life-saving surgical procedure performed on infants, children, or adolescents whose livers are failing and cannot recover. The goal is to replace the diseased liver with a healthy one from either a deceased donor or a living donor.

Why Children Need Liver Transplants

Common reasons include:

  • Biliary atresia (most common in infants)
  • Genetic or metabolic liver diseases (e.g., Wilson disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency)
  • Acute liver failure
  • Liver tumors
  • Chronic cholestatic or inflammatory liver diseases

How the Procedure Works

  1. Evaluation: The child is thoroughly assessed to ensure a transplant is necessary and safe.
  2. Finding a Donor:
    • Deceased donor livers may be whole livers or reduced-size segments.
    • Living donor livers often come from a parent or relative; a portion of the adult liver is transplanted.
  3. Surgery: The child’s diseased liver is removed and replaced with the donor liver or liver segment.
  4. Recovery: The transplanted liver grows as the child grows, and both donor and recipient liver tissue regenerate.

Outcomes

  • Pediatric liver transplantation has excellent survival rates.
  • Most children go on to live healthy, active lives.
  • Long-term care involves immunosuppressive medications and regular follow-ups to ensure the liver continues to function well.

Pediatric liver transplant is a highly successful and essential treatment for children with severe liver diseases, offering them a chance at normal growth and development.

2. Living Donor Liver Transplant (LDLT)

Living Donor Liver Transplant (LDLT) is a surgical procedure in which a healthy person donates a portion of their liver to someone with severe liver disease. The liver is unique because it can regenerate—both the donor’s and recipient’s liver segments typically grow back to full size within weeks.

In LDLT, the donor undergoes extensive evaluation to ensure safety and compatibility. During surgery, a section of the donor’s liver—usually the right or left lobe—is transplanted into the recipient after removing their diseased liver. This approach offers several advantages: reduced waiting time, improved survival rates, and the ability to schedule surgery electively rather than waiting for a deceased donor organ.

Although LDLT is generally safe, it is still a major operation with potential risks for both donor and recipient. However, in experienced centers, outcomes are excellent, and the procedure has become a vital option for patients with end-stage liver disease.

3. Deceased Donor Liver Transplant (DDLT)

Deceased Donor Liver Transplant (DDLT) is a type of liver transplantation in which a liver is obtained from a person who has died—usually due to brain death or circulatory death—and donated for transplantation. It is also known as Cadaveric Liver Transplant.

In this procedure:

  • After the donor is declared legally dead and consent for organ donation is confirmed, the liver is surgically removed and preserved.
  • The recipient’s diseased liver is then removed, and the donor liver is implanted and connected to the recipient’s blood vessels and bile ducts.
  • Once blood flow is restored, the transplanted liver begins functioning in the recipient.

DDLT is the most common type of liver transplant worldwide. However, because the number of available deceased donor organs is limited, many patients remain on waiting lists for long periods. Despite this, DDLT provides excellent long-term outcomes and remains a crucial treatment for people with end-stage liver disease, acute liver failure, or certain metabolic conditions.

4. Complex Transplants: Advancing the Frontiers of Liver Transplantation

Complex liver transplantation refers to procedures that go beyond standard liver replacement, allowing surgeons to treat patients who previously had no viable option for cure. These operations require highly specialized expertise, advanced surgical planning, and multidisciplinary coordination. Among the most significant innovations in this field are ABO-incompatible liver transplantation, combined liver–kidney transplantation, dual-lobe living donor transplant, and re-transplantation.

● ABO-Incompatible Liver Transplantation

Traditionally, liver transplantation required matching the donor and recipient’s blood groups to avoid severe immune reactions. However, improvements in immunomodulation have made ABO-incompatible (ABOi) liver transplant a safe and effective option in selected cases.

In ABOi transplantation, the recipient receives specialized treatment before surgery—such as plasmapheresis to remove harmful antibodies and medications like rituximab to suppress antibody production. These measures reduce the risk of antibody-mediated rejection. ABOi liver transplants have been especially valuable in pediatric patients and in urgent situations where waiting for a compatible organ is not possible. Although the procedure carries higher immunological risk, outcomes have improved dramatically with modern protocols.

● Combined Liver–Kidney Transplantation

Some patients suffer from both end-stage liver disease and irreversible kidney failure. For them, a combined liver–kidney transplant (CLKT) offers a comprehensive solution. In this operation, both organs are transplanted—usually from the same deceased donor—during one surgical session.

CLKT provides several advantages. It avoids the need for two separate operations, reduces overall recovery time, and offers better long-term outcomes for patients whose kidney function is unlikely to recover after a liver transplant alone. The procedure is particularly beneficial in conditions such as hepatorenal syndrome, polycystic liver–kidney disease, and certain metabolic disorders that affect both organs.

● Dual-Lobe Living Donor Liver Transplantation

Living donor liver transplantation is lifesaving, but a single donor lobe may not always provide enough liver volume for an adult recipient. In such cases, surgeons may perform a dual-lobe transplant, using portions of the liver from two living donors.

This technique ensures the recipient receives adequate liver mass while keeping each donor’s safety as the top priority. Dual-lobe transplants are technically demanding and require comprehensive planning, meticulous surgical coordination, and careful donor selection. They have expanded the possibilities for adults with large body size or high metabolic demands who would otherwise have limited living donor options.

● Re-Transplantation

Re-transplantation, or a second liver transplant, is performed when the first transplant fails due to complications such as chronic rejection, primary non-function of the graft, recurrent disease, or vascular problems. It is one of the most challenging procedures in transplant surgery.

Compared to a first-time transplant, re-transplantation carries greater risks because of scar tissue, altered anatomy, and the patient’s weakened condition. Despite these challenges, re-transplantation remains the only life-saving option for many individuals, and outcomes have steadily improved with advancements in perioperative care, immunosuppression, and surgical technique.

AASLT – Liver Transplant Facility in Delhi with High Success Rate

A liver transplant, in most cases, is a successful treatment. The general survival rate for patients is between 95-98%. Most recipients live a normal life after the transplant. Some patients can experience problems within 1 to 2 years after the transplant. These include infections in the organ, rejection of the new liver by the body, and biliary stricture.

However, at AASLT@Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital, a highly skilled and professional team of surgeons perform liver transplant in Delhi. We have some of the lowest biliary complication rates. Our surgeons leverage cutting-edge procedures and innovative technologies to deliver the best results. The multidisciplinary team at AASLT@Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital, specializes in performing Minimally Invasive Liver Surgery, either laparoscopically or robotically. These surgeries include donor hepatectomy, major hepatectomy for liver cancer, liver hydatid cyst excision, and liver transplant in experimental stages.

AASLT@Yatharth Super Speciality Hospital is a trusted liver transplant hospital in Delhi that provides patient-centric care from experts with rich experience working at various successful transplant centres in India. Our dedication, compassion, and hard work for our patients have enabled AASLT@Yatharth Superspeciality Hospital Hospital to become a renowned name for liver transplants in Delhi.

AASLT@Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital’s team specializes in liver transplants for both adults and children. We provide specialist treatment services for patients with Hepatitis C, liver failure, Cirrhosis, and other advanced liver diseases. We are one of the few institutes whose specialists also perform Living Donor Liver Transplants.