Is the Cost of Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation Higher Than Deceased Donor Liver Transplantation?

Background An important long-term consideration for living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is the expense compared with cadaveric-liver transplantation. LDLT is a more complex procedure than cadaveric transplantation and the cost of donor evaluation, donor surgery, and postoperative donor care must be included in a cost analysis for LDLT. In this study, we compare the comprehensive cost of LDLT with that of cadaveric-liver transplantation. Methods All costs for medical services provided at our institution were recorded for 24 LDLT and 43 cadaveric recipients with greater than 1 year follow-up transplanted between August 1997 and April 2000. The donor costs include donors evaluated and rejected, donors evaluated and accepted, donor right hepatectomy costs, and donor follow-up costs (365 days postdonation). LDLT and cadaveric recipient costs include medical care 90 days pre-LDLT, recipient transplant costs, and recipient follow-up costs (365 days posttransplant) including retransplantation. Cost is expressed as an arbitrary cost unit (CU) that is a value between $500 to $1,500. Results Total LDLT costs (evaluations of rejected donors + evaluations of accepted donors + donor hepatectomy + donor follow-up care for 1 year + pretransplant recipient care [90 days pretransplant] + recipient transplantation + recipient 1-year posttransplant care)= 162.7 CU. Total mean cadaveric transplant costs (pretransplant recipient care [90 days pretransplant] + recipient transplantation [including organ acquisition cost] + recipient 1-year posttransplant care)=134.5 CU, (P = ns) Conclusions The total comprehensive cost of LDLT is 21% higher than cadaveric transplantation, although this difference is not significant. (Transplantation 2003;75:473-476.)