Liver transplantation using living donors. Preliminary donor psychiatric outcomes.

Twenty liver transplantations to sick infants from living-donor relatives were performed over a 16-month period. Before the operation, donors were screened psychiatrically by interview and psychological testing. Donor outcomes were assessed postoperatively to evaluate adverse psychiatric outcomes and to attempt a correlation with preoperative findings. There were three significant donor problems in the immediate postoperative period, two marital dissolutions and one adjustment disorder, as well as several other minor problems. These results are examined in light of past observations about living-donor renal transplantations and pediatric transplantation in general.