The activity of the liver transplant center of Milan, Italy

At the Department of Liver Transplantation of Milan the work in the Experimental Surgery Laboratory is continuously progressing in parallel with the clinical activity. This activity has proved to be useful both for surgical training and to investigate aspects of transplantation surgery that have clinical impact. The clinical activity that began slowly is now growing at an increasing pace. It is our policy to accept and also perform transplants on those patients in very poor condition because of complications of end-stage liver disease. Of course this policy has negatively influenced the results, especially in the first phase of our activity, but the overall survival rate is now similar to that reported by other authors. Our center is potentially able to perform at least 35 liver transplant operations per year. The major limitations to the full exploitation of this potential are donor shortage and insufficient availability of intensive care unit beds.