Who needs a liver transplant?

In acute liver failure most centres follow criteria proferred by King's College Hospital or Clichy criteria or local modifications thereof. Once these criteria are met, survival of the patient without early transplantation is unlikely.These criteria take into account the depth of coma,function of the liver, time between onset of jaundice and coma, age and cause of liver disease and renal function.

In chronic liver disease once a patient falls into Child's Turcotte Pugh category C ( based on bilirubin, albumin, ascites, prothrombin time prolongation and encephalopathy) or has MELD score > 14 ( based on blilirubin, creatinine and INR) transplantation should be considered.

While these are generally accepted, disease specific criteria are also applicable.