Comparison of two questionnaires on informed consent in "marginal" donor liver

The necessity of liver donors has contributed to overcome the traditional criteria and to propose new ones for the acceptance of livers for transplantation. For this reason expanded or extended donation criteria (ECD) or even overextended criteria for marginal or high risk organ donors have been developed. ELPAT end ELITA-ELTR coordinated the distribution of questionnaire previously reported, that was sent to 53 European liver transplant centers. Criteria were divided based on the response rate. Criteria as Steatosis and Serum sodium > 165 mmol/L in more than 60% of cases are not considered a contraindication to transplantation as well as a previous history of cancer. Criteria as ICU stay, BMI > 30, Serum bilirubin > 3 mg/dL and HIV+ or critically illness are not considered adequate for transplantation from 30% to 59% of cases. On the other hand there is no agreement on other Extended liver donor and recipients criteria such as age up to 80 years, SGOT > 90 U/L, SGPT > 105 U/L and high risk sex practices, drug users, only age > 65 and only age < 65, respectively. Criteria as serum sodium could be not considered ECD criteria. In conclusion the development of more studies as well as the inclusion of more world-wide liver transplantation centers are required to confirm these data.