The Liver Evaluation

There is an old saying that goes something like this "your first instructor will always be your favorite instructor". There are many hospitals that have excellent reputations for doing liver transplants but the University of Alabama (UAB) is the one for me. I was wondering why I had to stay for three days just to do a liver evaluation. After all what medical test could be done to me that hasn't already been done. Well to start with drawing so much blood out of me I thought I was going to faint, hart stress test, CT of my liver, deep vein oxygen test, psychiatric exam, and the list goes on and on. After they were done with me they knew absolutely everything physically and mentally about me. What impressed me was I never had to wait for an appointment and when I arrived at each department they all seemed like they had been waiting for me. For the first time in years I felt like a person and not an Interferon experiment. I had meetings with the hepatologist, the surgeon, my assigned nurse, and a few other people. After the results of the test were in I met with the surgeon he said that I was at in the begging stages of cirrhosis and I had portal hypertension. The hepatologist explained to me about the MELD score (Model for End Stage Liver Disease) and I was an 11. The MELD score is a formula that is used to determine how sick your liver is. A MELD score of 11 means I was sick but not sick enough to have a liver transplant. UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) doesn't even consider a person for a transplant until the MELD score is at least a 15 or16. When you are put on the liver transplant list, the MELD score usually has to be around a 20 before your near the top of the list for surgery. Of course there are always exceptions because each patient is different.

These are links about the MELD score and Portal Hypertension.

http://www.unos.org/news/newsDetail.asp?id=15

http://www.medicinenet.com/portal_hypertension/article.htm