Current Status of Liver Transplantation

Liver replacement with a homograft (orthotopic liver transplantation) was first attempted in a human on March 1, 1963. 1 Since then more than a hundred patients have been treated with this procedure at the University of Colorado.More than a hundred additional cases have been accumulated in other centers.The second most active group in the field has been composed of personnel at Addenbrooke Hospital, Cambridge, and at King's College Hospital, London.The British inter-university effort has involved the fruitful collaboration of the surgeon, Professor Roy Calne, and the gastroenterologist, Professor Roger Williams, and has resulted in approximately 50 orthotopic liver transplantations.