Liver Donation

Life after donation

After operation, the donor will stay in hospital for 5-10 days. Another 3-4 weeks of recuperation is required at home. After that, the donor can resume normal activity (except strenuous physical exercise) and return to work 6 weeks after surgery. Sexual activity can be resumed as soon as the donor feels well enough. Heavy physical activity, sports including lifting weights can be resumed 3 months after surgery.

There are no dietary or any other restrictions, and the donor leads a completely normal life with normal liver function without any decrease in the longevity of life or any other long-term consequences.

All the donors in the author's series of patients have led a normal life after donation. None of them have died or had any major complications in the short or long-term. This is also the experience of most teams in the world undertaking such operations. However, among more than 7000 donor operations worldwide, 6 deaths have been reported which gives an expected mortality of around 0.1 %.

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