Pediatric Living-Donor Liver Transplant

When your child is on the transplant waiting list, it can take months for the right organ to become available from a deceased donor. A living-donor liver transplant — also called a live-donor liver transplant — can be an amazing gift that allows your child to avoid a long wait on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) transplant list.

What is a pediatric live-donor liver transplant?

A living-donor liver transplant involves removing part of a healthy adult’s liver to replace a child’s entire sick liver. This type of liver transplant is possible because of the liver’s unique ability to regenerate. With a living-donor liver transplant:

• The donor’s liver will grow back to its normal size after the transplant.
• The transplanted liver will continue to grow as your child grows and develops.

A living donor may be a child’s parent but could also be another relative, friend or unknown donor. Some liver donations come from donors who don’t know or choose the person who gets their liver (called nondirected or altruistic donation). In these cases, the donor’s liver is given to a child based on medical need and compatibility.

For children under age 2, we perform ABO-incompatible liver transplants. This means the donor’s and your child’s blood types do not have to match.

We partner with UCHealth’s Living Donor Program, located on the Anschutz Medical Campus, which has the largest nondirected liver donation program in the nation.

Learn more about becoming a living donor

Why have a living-donor liver transplant?

A transplant from a live donor helps your child get a lifesaving liver faster because they don’t have to wait on the UNOS transplant list for a deceased donor. At Children’s Hospital Colorado, children typically receive a liver transplant in about 1.5 months — about 3 months sooner than the national average. Receiving the liver earlier, before your child’s condition worsens, can make the transplant surgery and recovery easier.

Your child can be on the UNOS transplant list for a deceased donor organ while you consider a living-donor transplant at Children’s Colorado. We can also add your child to our waitlist even if they are also on another transplant hospital’s list. This is called multi-listing and often results in a shorter wait time.

How does a living-donor liver transplant work?

In a living-donor liver transplant, surgeons remove a portion of the donor’s liver and transplant it into a child.

The donor’s surgery

Transplant surgeons at the University of Colorado Hospital, a premier adult transplant center, perform the donor’s surgery.

• Before surgery, the transplant team uses 3D imaging to evaluate the donor liver’s size, shape and volume. Using this information, they choose a section of the liver that is safe to remove and meets your child’s needs.
• Surgeons remove this section of the healthy adult liver, carefully disconnecting it from the blood vessels and bile ducts.
• The donor’s surgery is robotic. This minimally invasive technique uses smaller incisions and helps the donor recover faster.
• The transplant team packages the removed part of the liver and transports it to nearby Children’s Colorado for your child’s surgery.

Your child’s surgery

Your child’s liver transplant surgery at Children’s Colorado begins at about the same time as the donor’s surgery so the liver can be transplanted quickly.

• Our pediatric transplant surgeons start by removing your child’s unhealthy liver.
• The surgical team then prepares and carefully transplants the liver. This process includes connecting it to your child’s blood vessels and bile ducts.
• Your child’s new liver will grow and develop as they get older.

What should I expect before and after a living-donor liver transplant? 

The transplant process is very similar, no matter which type of liver transplant your child receives. Learn what to expect before, during and after a liver transplant.

How successful are liver transplants from living donors?

At Children’s Colorado, our living-donor liver transplant recipients have healthier liver function, lower rejection rates and high survival rates. Our one-year patient survival rate for living-donor liver recipients is 100%.*

What are the benefits of a living-donor liver transplant? 

There are several benefits of a live-donor transplant compared to a deceased-donor transplant, such as:

• Ability to plan in advance: You can schedule your child’s surgery when it’s best for your family instead of waiting for a call about a liver from a deceased donor.
• Shorter wait time: With a living-donor transplant, your child won’t have to wait as long to receive a new liver. They can have the transplant when they are healthier and in better condition for surgery.
• Better outcomes: Living-donor transplants can provide excellent outcomes, including better liver function and lower organ rejection rates.

Why choose Children’s Colorado for a living-donor liver transplant?

At Children’s Colorado, we understand that children are not just little adults. Every aspect of your child’s care is tailored to kids — from explaining each procedure in a way your child can understand to using special surgical tools and techniques made for smaller bodies.

We offer the expertise and quality care your child needs to heal and thrive, including:

• Established living-donor transplant expertise: We partner with University of Colorado Hospital, one of the nation’s premier transplant centers. The hospital’s transplant surgeons perform more than 100 liver transplants each year. Our combined live-donor transplant program is one of the most experienced and highest-volume centers in the country.
• Excellent living-donor outcomes: Our one-year patient survival rate is 100%, and our three-year patient survival rate is 95.2%. These results are better than national survival rates.*
• National leader in nondirected living donation: We partner with one of the largest nondirected living donor programs in the country. Nondirected donor living transplants shorten wait times and give all children on our waitlist access to lifesaving living-donor transplants.
• Shortest wait times: Our liver transplant waitlist time is the shortest in the country. Our patients typically wait about 1.5 months for a liver, compared to 4 months nationwide.*

Our extensive transplant expertise, shorter wait times and coordinated care mean your child is in expert hands. We’re dedicated to helping each child get the care they need so they can get back to being a kid again.

Contact the Liver Transplant Program

For questions or to make an appointment, please contact our liver transplant team at 720-777-2335 or livertransplant@childrenscolorado.org.

*Source: Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), July 2026 Program-Specific Report