People low on list for livers get “bad” ones

The following excerpts are from Newswise, Patients Low on Liver Transplant List Not Getting Best Organs, Newswise.com, Nov. 1, 2008:

An organ allocation policy that puts the sickest patients first in line to receive available donor livers for transplantation has created some unintended consequences for those patients low on the organ wait list, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Health System.

Since the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) organ allocation system was implemented in 2002, patients who are least in need of an organ transplant have been receiving livers that are higher-risk, or of a poorer-quality. As a result, the study shows post-transplant survival among non-urgent patients – those with MELD scores that place them lower on the wait list – has gotten worse since MELD was implemented.

Results from the study – set to appear in the November issue of Gastroenterology – ultimately reveal that MELD has changed how high-risk organs are allocated to patients, and not always for the better * * *.