Liver transplantation for alcohol-associated liver disease: The changing landscape

Alcoholic liver disease(ALD) is considered as a growing public health issue with universally increasing disease burden.Various genetic and environmental factors play role in its etiology.ALD recently has become the major indication for Liver Transplantation (LT).Most LT programs select their candidates by adhering to six months of alcohol abstinence policy.Nevertheless, early liver transplantation (ELT) has become a subject of research, both in Europe and the United States, as an effective and lifesaving option among highly selected severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (SAH) patients.ELT is a promising way in the management of ALD, perhaps changing clinical practice for carefully selected patient groups.Keywords: Liver transplantation; alcohol-associated liver disease; alcohol-associated hepatitis.dard LT compared to patients who received ELT (23±8% vs. 77±8%, p<0.001).This study showed that ELT for ALD may be an applicable and life-saving treatment option for carefully selected patients with AH.Another landmark retrospective study, including 147 patients who had ELT for SAH, showed that the predominant portion of the patients were alive at one year (94%) and three years (84%), comparable to the patients who underwent LT for other indications (Fig. 1).[6] This study