immunology allergic disorders
Liver Transplantation
Organ distribution
For distribution of available organs, patients on the US national waitlist are given a prognostic score derived from creatinine, bilirubin, and international normalized ratio (INR) measurements (using the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease [MELD] for adults) or from age and serumalbumin, bilirubin, INR, and growth failure measurements (using the model for Pediatric End-Stage Liver Disease [PELD] for children). MELD and PELD are formulas that are used to calculate the probability of a patient dying of liver disease while waiting for a liver transplantation. The MELDNa score is similar, but includes the sodium level in the calculation. Patients more likely to die are given higher priority for organs from matched donors. For patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, a score is assigned to reflect mortality risk based on tumor size and wait time. 