Milestones in liver transplantation: how did alcoholic cirrhosis become a transplantation indication?

In 1954, Dr Joseph Murray and Dr Francis Moore in the United States performed the first successful kidney transplant. The organ was taken from an identical twin, marking the true beginning of organ transplantation. It is important to note that a pressing question immediately arose regarding the ethical implications of expo- sing a healthy donor to potential postoperative complications.
The first report on experimental liver transplantation was presented in October 1952 by an Italian surgeon Vittorio Staudacher from Milan at the 54^th Congress of the Italian Surgical Society in Venice.
In 1955, Stuart Welch (Albany Medical College) presented experimental research on liver transplantation as an auxiliary organ (heterotopic transplantation) supporting the recipient’s liver.
In 1956, Jack A. Cannon (UCLA – Los Angeles) conducted the first experimental, orthotopic liver transplantation.
In 1960, Thomas Starzl reported the results of the first 5 orthotopic liver transplants in dogs.
In 1960, azathioprine was introduced into the treatment of transplant recipients.
In 1963, the aforementioned Thomas Starzl performed the first human liver transplant (OLT). The indication for this transplant was hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The survival rates for this and subsequent patients were extremely low. It was not until 1967 that the eighth human transplant, carried out by Th. Starzl, assured 400-day survival.
The concept of brain death was formalised between 1967 and 1968. In 1968, Sir Roy Calne performed the first successful liver transplant in Europe, in Cambridge, England.
A significant breakthrough occurred in 1969 when Jean Francis Borel introduced cyclosporine – another immunosuppressive drug for post-transplant patients.
In 1976, Roy Calne conducted clinical trials that confirmed the efficacy of this drug in maintaining the transplanted organ.
A consensus was reached in Bethesda, USA in 1983, establishing liver transplantation as a standard of care for patients with irreversible liver failure.
It is also worth noting the dates of 1984 and 1985, when Henri Bismuth in Villejuif and Rudolf Pichlmayr in Hanover transplanted parts of the liver after reducing the size of the organ, so that it could be used for paediatric recipients.
In 1987, a preservation solution for transplant organs, known as UW solution (University of Wisconsin), was introduced.
In 1989, another...


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