[Living donor liver transplantation].

Sixteen years after its first successful application, living donor liver transplantation now has a small but well-established role in treatment for liver failure in Germany. It remains problematic in both child and adult patients concerning effort, expected results, and assessment of risks to the donor. Therefore the method shall remain limited to more research-oriented institutions for the time being before it can be established more broadly as an alternative to postmortal donation. In Germany it presents generally the same limitations as living donor kidney transplantation.