When a liver fails beyond repair, a transplant replaces the diseased organ — or part of it — with healthy liver tissue from a donor. India performs more living-donor liver transplants than any other country, and its leading centres report one-year survival on a par with the best programmes anywhere, at roughly a tenth of Western prices and without a multi-year wait. 1
A liver transplant removes a liver that no longer works and replaces it with a healthy one. In a deceased-donor transplant the whole organ comes from someone who has died; in a living-donor transplant a healthy volunteer — usually a close relative — gives up part of their liver, and both halves grow back towards normal size within weeks, because the liver is the only solid organ that regenerates.
More than eight in ten transplants in India are living-donor procedures. 2 For an international patient that matters, because a living donor means the surgery can be planned rather than waited for — no place on a years-long deceased-donor list, and an operation timed for when the recipient is in the best possible shape to survive it.
A transplant is considered when the liver is failing and no other treatment will hold it — most often from cirrhosis (in India, fatty-liver disease is now the commonest cause, ahead of hepatitis B and C and alcohol), from sudden acute liver failure, or from liver cancer confined within accepted size limits. 1 Urgency is usually judged by a score called MELD; a treating consultant confirms it after reading your reports.
These are published Indian and international results. We give you the numbers and their context together, so you can see what a transplant does and does not change.
Read the results alongside their limits. Survival depends heavily on how sick a patient is at the time of surgery — Indian series repeatedly note that outcomes suffer when patients are referred late, after repeated infections or long waits. 1 The strongest single thing you can do for your odds is to be assessed early.
A living donation is a real operation on a healthy person, and their safety is the first consideration, not the last. A large meta-analysis of more than 60,000 living liver donors found an overall complication rate of about 24% — mostly minor, biliary problems being the commonest — and a mortality of roughly 0.06%. 4 Larger right-lobe grafts carry more donor risk than smaller left-lobe ones. A donor who is not a clear, willing match on medical and legal grounds is not accepted.
Transplantation is major surgery followed by a lifetime on medication that deliberately lowers the immune system. These are the things a consultant discusses with you at consent.
These are the things patients and families tell us they wish they had known earlier. The length of stay in India, and the donor's own workup, catch people by surprise.
Only hospitals with a licensed transplant programme and an on-site transplant committee can perform this. These are the accredited centres in our network.
Mumbai
Gurgaon
Delhi
Bengaluru
Consultant
CK Birla Hospital, Gurgaon
Director & Head
Paras Hospital, Gurgaon
Apollo Hospital, Bangalore
Director & HOD
Marengo Asia Hospitals
Director
For an international patient, a living donor — usually a close relative — is the practical route, because it lets the surgery be planned rather than waited for. Deceased-donor organs in India are allocated first to residents, so relying on one as a visitor is not realistic.
Living liver donation is generally safe but not without risk: large data put donor mortality at roughly 0.06% and complications, mostly minor, at about a quarter of donors. 4 A donor who is not a clear medical match is not accepted.
Plan on about 8–12 weeks in total — a couple of weeks of assessment before surgery, then hospital recovery and early monitoring afterwards.
Leading Indian centres report one-year survival in the mid-80s to mid-90s percent, matching the best international programmes. 1,2 Your own odds depend most on how early you are assessed and how well the disease is controlled beforehand.
Yes. Anti-rejection medication is lifelong, with regular blood tests. Once you are stable, most follow-up can move to your home country.
Every clinical claim on this page traces to one of these. Where we could not source a figure from peer-reviewed literature, we have left it out rather than estimate it.
This page is written for patients and their families and is not medical advice. Health Route is a facilitator, not a healthcare provider. Eligibility, MELD scoring, donor suitability and risk are decisions for a treating consultant who has examined you and read your reports.
The Status of Liver Transplantation in India.
National Medical Journal of India. India third globally by volume and the largest living-donor programme; fatty-liver disease the commonest indication; adult 1-year survival up to 84.3%, children up to 95%.
Deceased Donor Liver Transplantation in India: First Report of 5-Year Outcomes.
Transplant Direct, 2024. PubMed 38637925. Adult 1/3/5-year survival 87.2% / 80.4% / 76.6%.
Living Donor Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Indian Patients.
PubMed 34019241, 2021. 5-year overall survival 85.4%; recurrence-free 83.3%; other indications 81.2%.
Meta-analysis of living liver donor safety (60,829 donors).
Cited in Benchmarking Donor Safety, Medicina, 2026 (PMC12942509). Overall morbidity 24.3%, mortality 0.06%; biliary complications most common.
Comparative Outcomes of Living and Deceased Donor Liver Transplantation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
2025, PMC12786740. LDLT survival at least equal to DDLT; no difference in re-transplant or infection.
A transplant consultant reads them and writes back after the treating team completes its review with whether a transplant is the right step, whether your donor is likely to match, and an itemised price. No charge, and no obligation to travel.