4 ms·
I feel like kidney gets attention because you have two of them, but the liver is also great for donation as it regrows. After a couple months, you’ll have just
by cowsandmilk 2y ago
I feel like kidney gets attention because you have two of them, but the liver is also great for donation as it regrows. After a couple months, you’ll have just as much liver as you did before the procedure.
- temp0826 2y agoCan I sell my liver every two months? I think I found my new profession, liver farming!
- Mistletoe 2y agoDon’t give Peter Thiel ideas.
- signa11 2y agounfortunately not, mother Nature, grants you that option once only ! use it wisely :o)
- bdjsiqoocwk 2y agoWait this isn't true is it?
- stryan 2y agoIt's not, the liver can regenerate multiple times as long as you haven't sustained damage (scarring, etc) that would prevent it.
- signa11 2y agosorry, you cannot: https://www.nyp.org/transplant/liver-transplant/living-donor-liver-transplant https://www.nyp.org/transplant/liver-transplant/living-donor... see the FAQ section for more information.
- yladiz 2y agoSince the FAQ doesn't give much information, this Stack Exchange answer[1] is more helpful, which links to a paper about liver transplant and includes this quote: > Regeneration of the liver can be more correctly defined as compensatory hyperplasia where in the remaining liver tissue expands to meet the metabolic needs of the organism. Unlike anatomic true regeneration, the expanding liver does not regain its original gross anatomical structure. Essentially, it's not the same kind of tissue so it won't work as well for a transplant a second time. I guess you could donate multiple non-translated parts of your liver and the remaining could compensate up to a point, but it's obviously risky and is why no doctor would accept doing a second one. 1: https://medicalsciences.stackexchange.com/a/24438 https://medicalsciences.stackexchange.com/a/24438
- signa11 2y agothank you kindly ! your information is way more useful, truly appreciated !
- space_oddity 2y agoUnfortunately, your "liver farming" business plan has a few hiccups—mainly, the law and the limits of biology!
- Scoundreller 2y agoYour remaining kidney grows about 50% in the year after donation. A donor ends up with ~70% of their pre-donation capacity, not half. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7737237/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7737237/ Donating a kidney is a net positive in aggregate kidney function.
- bequanna 2y agoHow does that translate into kidney lifespan? I would expect only one kidney to “wear out” sooner, no?
- shepherdjerred 2y agoI only learned about liver donation after I was well into the kidney donation process -- I doubt that I'll do both :)
- iamthemonster 2y agoWhen I looked into live donor liver transplant, there was a 2% donor fatality rate which seemed quite material. Due to relatively small sample sizes, it's difficult to know if this 2% fatality rate is representative today. But in any case, live donor liver transplant is not a low-risk operation.
- space_oddity 2y agoIt’s remarkable that a liver can regrow to full size within months, making it a renewable resource in a way kidneys aren’t
- takinola 2y agoMy understanding is the liver does not regrow but the remaining tissue just gets bigger. Hence, the liver is not quite a perpetual motion machine.