Living liver donor safety: Preoperative aspects of living liver donation guidelines from the ILTS-iLDLT consensus conference

Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is an established therapy with curative intent for pediatric and adult patients with acute liver failure and end stage liver disease. Donor safety remains paramount and commences during preoperative evaluation and assessment. Given the importance of the topic, the International Liver Transplantation Society and International Living Donor Liver Transplantation Group consensus conference on Living Liver Donor Safety was convened in March 2025 (Toronto, Canada). Recommendations were based on the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system for assessment of recommendations, and Danish model of consensus was followed. This report presents 28 recommendations from the working group focused on addressing clinically relevant questions related to the preoperative aspects of living donor safety including assessment of donor acceptability (age, body mass index and hepatic steatosis; medical conditions and contraindications), medical and surgical workup (liver function and procoagulant work-up; anatomical considerations and safe remnant), and psychosocial evaluation (timing and team; underlying conditions; non-directed, paired, and anonymous directed donors; urgent living donor workups for acute liver failure).