Study finds increase in unused transplant livers
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The number of donor livers thrown away in the U.S. has increased since 2004 due – in part – to a population growing older and heavier, according to a new study that also points to changes in medical practice that may make some donor livers less viable. “The rationale for looking at this question in the first place is that the number of liver transplants done in the U.S. has gone down,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Eric Orman, a fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. …