Liver transplantation for metabolic disease of the liver.

Hepatic transplantation for metabolic or genetic diseases of the liver produces a definite cure of the liver disease and also effectively cures the underlying metabolic abnormalities of the genetic disease in question. Liver transplantation is highly likely to become the current treatment of choice for a wide variety of metabolic disorders based predominantly in the liver. This is true not only for those that produce grossly evident hepatic disease with cirrhosis, but also for those that are free of obvious hepatocellular injury but are based either predominantly or exclusively within the liver.