According to a study presented at the Scientific Forum of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2022, livers are incredibly resilient organs. The findings of the study revealed that the small but growing subset of liver transplants has a cumulative age of more than 100 years. The lead researcher, Dr. Yash Kadakia from the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, stated that they studied such livers to identify characteristics to determine why these organs are so resilient, paving the way for considering the potential expanded use of older liver donors.

For the study, the research team used the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) STAR file to identify livers that had a cumulative age (total initial age at transplant plus post-transplant survival) of at least 100 years. Based on the STAR file, of 253,406 livers transplanted between 1990 and 2022, 25 livers met the criteria of the desired liver, i.e., those with a cumulative age of over 100 years.

The findings of the study showed that among these 25 cases, the average donor age was significantly higher (84.7 years) in comparison to the age of non-centurion liver transplants (38.5 years). The researchers noted that the donors from the centurion group had a lower incidence of diabetes and fewer donor infections. 

(Source: https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=1010776 )