Clinical application of liver-related liver transplantation.

The success of liver transplantation as a clinical therapy has led to a critical shortage of donor livers. The ethical basis for living-related liver transplantation (LRT) has been extensively studied and is outlined in this article. LRT has been performed with high success rates at several centers in the industrialized world and can be considered routinely for children needing livers. Extension of this procedure to adults will represent an important innovation and is currently under study.