Liver exchange in Turkey

Here's a forthcoming article in the AJT, reporting on a collaboration between physicians and market designers with experience in kidney exchange:

The First 4-Way Liver Paired Exchange from an Interdisciplinary Collaboration between Healthcare Professionals and Design Economists by Sezai Yilmaz, MD, FACS  Tayfun Sönmez, PhD  M. Utku Ünver, PhD  Volkan Ince, MD  Sami Akbulut, MD, FACS  Burak Isik, MD  Sukru Emre, MD  American Journal of Transplantation, BRIEF COMMUNICATION|ARTICLES IN PRESS, Open Access Published: July 05, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajt.2023.06.016 

Abstract: We report initial results of a Liver Paired Exchange (LPE) program established at the Liver Transplant Institute at Inonu University through collaboration with design economists. Since June 2022, the program has been using a matching procedure that maximizes the number of living donor liver transplants (LDLTs) to the patients in the pool subject to the ethical framework and the logistical constraints of the program. In one 4-way and four 2-way exchanges, twelve LDLTs have been performed via LPE in 2022. The 4-way exchange, generated in the same match run with a 2-way exchange, is a first worldwide. This match run generated LDLTs for six patients, revealing the value of the capacity to carry out larger than 2-way exchanges. With only 2-way exchanges, only four of these patients would receive LDLT. The number of LDLTs from LPE can be increased by developing the capacity to perform larger than 2-way exchanges in either high-volume centers or multi-center programs.