![]() ![]() On the other hand, some physicians worry abandoning the six-month rule could overwhelm the limited supply of donor organs. Patients who don’t live near those hospitals - or don’t have the knowledge and resources to get to them - can die without ever making it onto the waitlist, Cameron said. As of 2019, only about one-third of liver transplant hospitals in the U.S. No national regulation determines how long a patient needs to be abstinent before being added to the waitlist each transplant center sets its own policies. ![]() “There was nothing at all helpful or predictive about a six-month waiting period,” Cameron said. That means about 80% stayed sober, regardless of how long they abstained from alcohol before the surgery. Doctors don’t withhold treatment from people with diabetes who are obese or people with sexually transmitted infections who had unprotected sex, he said.Ĭameron and his colleagues published a study this August, which found that among patients with alcoholic liver disease who were made to wait six months and those who were not, about 20% in each group returned to drinking one year after their transplants. Andrew Cameron, head of the liver transplant program at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. “We have to move beyond denying people lifesaving therapy because we think they don’t deserve it,” said Dr. And with alcoholic liver disease rising among young adults and pandemic-related drinking exacerbating those numbers, it has become a pressing concern. Now, as the understanding of addiction evolves - viewing it as a disease rather than a personal failing - many surgeons and families say the six-month hold unfairly penalizes those with substance use disorder. Six months of abstinence is not a good predictor of long-term sobriety, and for people with conditions like Gorzney’s, more than half die within that time. However, a landmark European study published in 2011 and several American studies in the decade since have exposed flaws in that premise. ![]() If that didn’t work, the patient would have proven they can stay sober and would not return to drinking after a transplant. The thinking then - and among proponents of the practice today - was that six months of abstinence gave a patient’s liver time to heal and, thus, avoid a transplant. This informal policy, often called “the 6-month rule,” can be traced to the 1980s. In the U.S., a widespread practice requires patients with alcoholic liver disease to complete a period of sobriety before they can get on the waiting list for a liver. Club themes include: cooking, science activities, arts and crafts, community service, music, drama, and technology.But Gorzney wasn’t eligible for a transplant, the doctors said.
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