• H Esmati et al. Liver Transplantation; 2023; 29: 157-163. Open Access! Waitlist mortality of young patients with biliary atresia: Impact of allocation policy and living donor liver transplantation
• Editorial: GV Mazariegos et al. Liver Transplantation. 29:130-131. Open Access! Waitlist mortality in pediatric liver transplantation: The goal is zero

From the editorial, Key Points:

• Esmati et al.¹ present a fascinating analysis of the impact on waitlist outcomes of a 2014 Eurotransplant (ET) policy that prioritizes patients younger than the age of 2 years with biliary atresia for deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) offers
• Waitlist mortality decreased from 6.7% before to 2.3% after implementation of the new policy. Unexpectedly, this was not associated with an increase in DDLTs
• During the same time period, the proportion of young patients with BA who underwent living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) increased from 55% to 74%.
• Without adaptions to the pediatric Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) or Pediatric End‐Stage Liver Disease scores, children can never fairly “compete” for deceased donor livers because of the tremendous volume and demand from the adult candidate list

My take (borrowed from editorial): There are many potential ways to achieve the desired goal of zero pediatric waitlist mortality. And, multiple strategies can successfully be pursued in parallel: prioritize children, increase use of LDLT, and increase/mandate use of split livers.

Related blog posts:

• Online Aspen Webinar (Part 7) -Liver Organ Allocation
• Pediatric Liver Transplantation: Past Time to Split (2017)
• Improved Outcomes with Living Donor Livers for Vulnerable Recipients
• Liver Transplant Outcomes in Children: Two Studies
• Liver Update: Past Time to Split (2022) & Graft Fibrosis -Will the Liver Last?
• High Survival Rates for Biliary Atresia Patients Needing Liver Transplantation
• Projected 20-Year and 30-Year Survival Rates for Pediatric Liver Transplant Recipients (U.S.)

Another (unrelated) study in this issue -easy way to assess mobility (a key element of frailty) in adults with decompensated liver disease: AJ Groff et al. Liver Transplantation 29: 226-228. Open Access! A novel method using the level of mobility to predict mortality in patients admitted for decompensated cirrhosis: A prospective study The authors found the following: a value of <8 on The Johns Hopkins Highest Level of Mobility score (JH‐HLM, see below) was associated with much higher risk of mortality compared with those with a JH‐HLM score of 8.