UNOS changes liver distribution policy

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), based in Richmond, VA, and responsible for coordinating all policy on organ donation in the United States, recently revised its policy on the allocation of donated livers. The change follows a major effort by larger liver transplant centers to change the status of patients on liver transplant waiting lists.

A separate category for patients who become "acutely critical" would be given a priority second status. They would follow in status patients whose previously healthy livers fail suddenly from illness or injury and those patients who have received a transplant that later failed.