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 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Right now, 18,000 people are waiting for a liver transplant in the United States. Seventeen patients will die today looking for a match; but a new living donor liver transplant is giving people on the waiting list hope.
Torrey Brown, Sr. and Torrey Brown, Jr. share more than a name. They share a liver.
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"I always see myself in the future being able to say, 'You know you have a piece of me in you,'" Torrey, Sr., told Ivanhoe.
His son was born with a liver that wasn't working. Torrey, Sr. was a perfect match for a transplant and was one of the first to be spared the pain of traditional surgery.
 "Often times, the donors would come out of these operations looking worse than their recipients," Lynt Johnson, M.D., chief of the division of transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., told Ivanhoe.
Dr. Johnson led the team in Torrey's liver removal. Two tiny incisions were made: one for a laparoscope and one for an instrument that cuts tissue. Another three-inch incision allows the surgeon's hand inside the body to move the liver into place. The liver is divided and removed by hand.
"It allows us to really be able to see some things that we weren't able to see in the same fashion," Dr. Johnson explained.
The new procedure means a four hour surgery, a smaller incision and it cuts hospital and recovery time in half. Ninety percent of Torrey, Sr.'s liver will grow back in three months.
"Senior won't feel like he's got part of his liver missing, nor will he feel it as it's growing back; but the liver will re-grow and Torrey, as he grows, the liver will grow with him," Dr. Johnson said.
 Torrey, Jr. will need medication and blood work for the rest of his life.
The main risk of laparoscopic surgery is usually bleeding. Dr. Johnson says he reduces that risk by using his hand to compress the main blood vessels. The only other organ donated by a living donor is the kidney, which can also be removed laparoscopically.
For additional research on this article, click here.
To read Ivanhoe's full-length interview with Dr. Johnson, click here.
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If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Lindsay Braun at lbraun@ivanhoe.com.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Marianne Worley, Director of Media Relations
Georgetown University Hospital
(202) 444-4659
http://www.georgetownuniversityhospital.org
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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