Liver Transplant

A liver transplant replaces a failing liver with a healthy one, or with part of one. In Türkiye most are living donor transplants: a relative gives the right or left lobe of their liver, and both the donated part and the donor's remaining liver regrow over the following weeks.

By Turkish law a living donor must be a relative up to the fourth degree, including by marriage, or be approved by an official ethics committee that excludes payment or coercion. Patients must bring their own eligible donor, and donors are never arranged for them. It is among the largest operations in medicine, with real risk for the recipient and a smaller but genuine risk for a healthy donor, and it requires lifelong anti-rejection medication.

What Liver Transplant involves

The recipient is assessed with blood tests, a MELD score, CT or MRI of the liver and its vessels, heart and lung tests, and screening for infection and cancer. The donor has blood group testing, a CT scan to measure liver volumes and map vessels, an MRI of the bile ducts, sometimes a liver biopsy to exclude fat, and an independent medical and psychological evaluation. The recipient must receive enough liver, roughly 0.8 per cent or more of their body weight, while the donor keeps at least 30 to 35 per cent of theirs. After committee approval, two teams operate side by side. The donor's lobe is divided with its artery, portal vein, hepatic vein and bile duct. The recipient's diseased liver is removed and the graft is connected vein by vein, then the artery under magnification and finally the bile duct.

Who is a good candidate for Liver Transplant?

A transplant board decides whether the benefit justifies the risk for both people.

• Decompensated cirrhosis from hepatitis B or C, fatty liver disease, autoimmune or cholestatic disease
• Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) within accepted size and number criteria
• Acute liver failure, where time allows
• Children with biliary atresia and metabolic liver diseases
• Alcohol-related liver disease after a sustained, documented period of abstinence with support
• Recipients with a healthy, willing, legally eligible relative whose liver anatomy is suitable

It is usually not the right choice if:

• Cancer that has spread outside the liver
• Active alcohol or drug use
• Uncontrolled infection or severe heart or lung disease
• Anyone without a genuine, legally eligible donor
• Donors with a fatty liver, unsuitable anatomy, significant medical conditions or any sign of pressure to donate
• Patients without a hepatology team at home to continue follow-up

Technique options

• Living donor right lobe transplant: The usual choice for adult recipients, giving about 60 per cent of the donor's liver.
• Living donor left lobe or left lateral segment: Used for smaller adults and children, with lower risk to the donor.
• Deceased donor transplant: Allocated through the national system to residents by urgency. Not a realistic route for visiting patients.
• Laparoscopic or robotic donor hepatectomy: Offered in a few experienced centres to reduce the donor's wound and recovery.
• Bridging and downstaging for liver cancer: Ablation or chemoembolisation to control tumours before transplant.

What happens during your treatment

The recipient operation lasts 8 to 12 hours and the donor operation 5 to 7 hours under general anaesthesia. The recipient goes to intensive care, usually for 2 to 4 days, with a breathing tube for the first hours, drains and frequent ultrasound checks of blood flow in the new liver. The donor spends a night in a high dependency unit.

Preparing for your trip

Plan for 2 to 3 months in Istanbul. Your surgeon reviews photographs and your medical history before you book, and you meet in person the day before surgery for examination, marking and consent with a professional interpreter.

• Stop smoking and nicotine at least four weeks before and after surgery; it is the single biggest avoidable cause of wound problems
• Tell the team about every medicine and supplement you take; blood thinners, some herbal products and hormone treatment may need to be paused on your doctor's advice
• Arrange for someone to travel with you or to be reachable, and keep the first days at home free of work and lifting
• Book a changeable return flight; your surgeon confirms when you are fit to fly

Recovery and results

Donors stay about 7 to 10 days, and their liver regains most of its volume in 6 to 8 weeks, with full recovery over 2 to 3 months. Recipients stay 2 to 3 weeks. The first 3 months need frequent blood tests for liver function and drug levels, so most international recipients remain in Istanbul for 2 to 3 months. Many return to work after 3 to 6 months. Immunosuppression, sun protection, vaccinations and avoidance of alcohol continue for life.

• Back to everyday activity: 3 to 6 months
• When results show: Liver tests improve over days to weeks
• How long they last: Many grafts function for 20 years or more with lifelong medication

Safety, risks and revision policy

You should discuss the centre's own survival and donor complication figures. Typical one-year recipient survival in experienced programmes is around 85 to 90 per cent.

• Bile duct leaks and narrowing, the most frequent complication of living donor grafts, often needing endoscopic or radiological treatment
• Clotting of the hepatic artery, which can threaten the graft and require a repeat transplant
• Bleeding and the need for re-operation
• Acute rejection, generally controllable with medication
• Serious infections while immunosuppressed
• A graft too small for the recipient's needs (small-for-size syndrome)
• Return of the original disease, such as cancer or autoimmune disease, plus long-term kidney impairment, diabetes and raised cancer risk from medication
• For the donor: complications in around 20 to 30 per cent, mostly minor, such as bile leak, infection and hernia, with a risk of death of about 1 in 500 for right lobe donation

Every written proposal arranged through Clinic-Y states what the clinic covers if a correction is needed. Ask for it before you book, not after.

Cost of Liver Transplant in Türkiye

Clinic-Y does not publish a single price for Liver Transplant, because the honest figure depends on your case. What moves it:

• Full evaluation of recipient and donor
• Severity of illness and days in intensive care
• Management of biliary or vascular complications
• Length of stay in the city for two people and carers, often 2 to 3 months
• Lifelong immunosuppressive medicines and monitoring at home

Send your photographs or reports and you receive written, all-inclusive proposals from suitable teams, side by side. Reviewing your case is free.

Frequently Asked Questions