Patients’ Willingness to Accept Expanded Criteria Donor Liver Transplantation

Utilization of livers from expanded criteria donors (ECD) is one strategy to overcome the severe organ shortage. The decision to utilize an ECD liver is complex and fraught with uncertainty for both providers and patients. We assessed patients’ willingness to accept ECD liver transplantation (LTx) and acceptable 1‐year mortality risk. One hundred eight patients listed for LTx were asked to rate their willingness to accept ECD LTx and the associated 1‐year mortality risk they were willing to accept. Also, patients completed the SF‐36v2 and sociodemographic and health information was gathered from their medical records. Patients reported significantly higher willingness to accept standard criteria donor (SCD) versus ECD LTx (t = 13.8, p < 0.001), with more than one‐third of patients reporting low willingness to accept ECD LTx. Relative to our center's 10% SCD LTx 1‐year mortality rate, most patients (71%) were willing to accept moderately or substantially higher 1‐year mortality risk for ECD LTx. In multivariable analyses, higher lab MELD score and white race were significant independent predictors of both ECD willingness and ECD increased mortality risk acceptability. Findings highlight the importance of assessing patients’ willingness to pursue ECD LTx and the relative mortality risks they are willing to accept. Findings from this study show that not all patients are willing to accept liver transplantation using an expanded criteria donor, although most patients were willing to accept moderately or substantially higher one‐year mortality risk for expanded criteria donor transplantation relative to standard criteria donor transplantation.