Financial impact of adult living donation

Key points 1. Cost analyses of living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and deceased-donor liver transplantation should capture costs incurred during the pretransplantation time period because benefits of LDLT likely result from reducing complications and cost pretransplantation. 2. Cost analyses should capture the costs associated with donor evaluation in LDLT since these costs are specific to LDLT and not associated with deceased-donor liver transplantation. 3. Indirect costs, such as time lost from work for donor and recipient, are difficult to estimate and frequently are not incorporated in cost-effectiveness analyses. However, they are important, particularly from a societal perspective.