Current status and perspective of pediatric liver transplantation in Japan

In Japan, the annual number of pediatric liver transplantation (LT) has been stable around 140 in the last few years. Almost all of them are from living donors. Three fourth are indicated for cholestatic liver diseases, mainly biliary atresia. One year patient survival rate after pediatric LT in Japan is 85 %. In comparison to other indications, patient survival of the infants with fulminant hepatic failure is quite poor. Weaning protocol of immunosuppression in pediatric LT in Japan is going in many institutions, and has succeeded to obtain some number of recipients with complete tolerance. More attenuated immunosuppresion and intimate monitoring for EB virus infection using the real-time PCR has been effective to decrease the incidence of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder.