Liver transplantation for Wilson disease: Current knowledge and future perspectives.

Abstract

Liver transplantation currently represents a therapeutic option for patients with Wilson disease presenting with end-stage liver disease or acute liver failure. Indeed, it has been associated with excellent postoperative survival curves in view of young age at transplant and absence of recurrence. Attention has shifted over the past decades to a wise expansion of indications for liver transplantation. Evidence has emerged supporting the transplantation of carefully selected patients with primarily neuropsychiatric symptoms and compensated cirrhosis. The rationale behind this approach is the potential for surgery to improve copper homeostasis and consequently ameliorate neuropsychiatric symptoms. However, several questions remain unanswered, such as how to establish thresholds for assessing pretransplant neuropsychiatric impairment, how to standardize preoperative neurological assessments, and how to define postoperative outcomes for patients meeting these specific criteria. Furthermore, a disease-specific approach will be proposed both for the liver transplant evaluation of candidates with Wilson disease and for patient care during the transplant waiting period, highlighting the peculiarities of this systemic disease.