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Article: Liver spats: organ transplants. (United Network for Organ Sharing proposes change in method for allocating livers for transplant)(American Survey)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- January 25, 1997
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ORGANS for transplant are scarce, so how should they be allocated? Back in November, boffins at the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the non-profit agency that looks after America's organs under a contract with the federal government, jiggered their computer models to see if they could make the allocation of livers more efficient. They concluded that by moving people who suddenly lost liver function up the waiting list, America could manage 65-70 more liver transplants a year. And the number of patients dying as they waited for a transplant-954 last year-would fall.
The reason for this is that acute liver failure tends to happen to otherwise healthy people ...