Liver transplant in Turkey

Yes, with a living donor. Livers from deceased donors go to patients on Turkey's national waiting list, and foreign nationals cannot join it. There is no queue to enter from abroad: the only route is a relative who travels with you and gives part of their liver.

Turkish regulation defines who may donate by degree of kinship, by blood and by marriage. In practice that means spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and cousins. A donor outside that circle goes before an ethics committee under the health authority, which examines the relationship and the motive and can refuse. Paying for an organ is a crime, and a licensed centre will not take a case in which money changes hands for the liver. Expect to provide official documents proving the relationship, translated and legalised, before anything is scheduled.

1. 1

   Records review and online consultation

   You send the diagnosis, recent liver and kidney tests, imaging, your medication list, the blood groups of you and your donor, and the documents proving the relationship. The transplant team says whether the case and the donor look workable before anyone travels.
2. 2

   Work-up of recipient and donor in Turkey

   For the recipient: blood tests, virology, imaging of the liver and its vessels, heart and lung assessment, and for cancer cases staging scans. For the donor: liver function, a CT scan that measures liver volume and maps the vessels and bile ducts, checks for fatty liver, and a psychological assessment. This takes days, sometimes longer.
3. 3

   Legal and ethics clearance

   The transplant coordinator files the kinship documents and the donor's consent. A donor outside the family circle goes to the ethics committee. The operation is scheduled only after clearance.
4. 4

   The two operations

   The donor's operation removes part of the liver, usually the right lobe for an adult recipient and a smaller portion for a child. The recipient's operation removes the diseased liver entirely and connects the new portion to the blood vessels and the bile duct. Both are long operations under general anaesthesia, run in parallel by two teams.
5. 5

   Intensive care, then the ward

   The recipient spends the first days in intensive care while the new liver starts working and the anti-rejection drugs are begun. The ward stay after that is measured in weeks. The donor is in intensive care briefly and on the ward for about a week, then recovers as an outpatient.
6. 6

   Follow-up in Turkey, then at home

   Blood tests and scans are frequent in the first weeks to watch the bile ducts, the vessels and the drug levels, so recipients stay in Turkey for several weeks after discharge. You then hand over to a hepatologist at home with the discharge summary, the imaging and the drug plan.

There is no single figure on this page. A liver transplant is priced case by case, and a number that is not tied to a written quote would be wrong for someone. The listing further down shows each clinic's starting price with a basis chip, either "All-inclusive package" or "Treatment only", so compare like with like.

What moves the price: two major operations rather than one; the length of the recipient's intensive care stay, which varies more than in any other transplant; blood products; the extent of the work-up, including the donor's CT volumetry; anti-rejection and antiviral drugs for the first period; any complication, especially of the bile ducts; the length of the ward stay; and, on a treatment-only price, accommodation for the patient, the donor and a companion for the weeks of follow-up.

What to have in writing before you pay:

• Whether the price covers both operations and the donor's full hospital stay
• How many intensive care days and ward nights are included, and the daily rate beyond them
• Blood products, and what happens if more are needed
• The work-up for both of you, including the donor's CT volumetry and any biopsy
• Anti-rejection and antiviral medication at discharge, and for how long it is supplied
• How a complication such as a bile leak or a second operation is charged
• Follow-up visits, blood tests and scans during your stay; transfers, accommodation and an interpreter if the package is described as all-inclusive
• What happens to the price if the donor is found unsuitable after the work-up

Liver transplantation has become a reliable operation, and most recipients return to work, family life and travel. Survival depends on why the liver failed, how sick the patient was at the time of surgery, the donor, the centre's experience and how carefully the medication and follow-up are kept up afterwards. That is why this page does not quote a percentage: a single figure hides those differences, and a good centre will show you its own audited results for cases like yours instead of a headline number.

Two things are within the patient's control and matter a great deal: taking the anti-rejection drugs exactly as prescribed, and never returning to alcohol when drinking was the cause. A transplanted liver can be damaged by the same things that damaged the first one.

Recovery is slower than after a kidney transplant. Energy returns over weeks, the wound heals over the same period, and the new liver grows towards full size over months. Walking starts on the ward; lifting, driving and work wait for the surgeon's clearance, usually months rather than weeks for a full return. The donor recovers faster but should also plan on weeks away from heavy work.

For life: anti-rejection medication, no alcohol, vaccinations kept up, a healthy weight, and regular blood tests to catch rejection, infection or a narrowing of the bile duct early. Fever, jaundice, dark urine, pale stools or pain over the liver are reasons to call the transplant team the same day, wherever you are. Before you leave Turkey, get the discharge summary, the imaging, the exact drug plan and the laboratory results in a form your hepatologist at home can use, and book that appointment before you fly.