For patients

The information from this study will help us to understand how we might improve outcomes for organ recipients. 

We would like to assess whether a new technique of liver preservation can result in a successful transplant and improve the use of livers that are currently discarded compared to the standard cold storage. 

We will also collect information so the NHS can decide if this technology is good value for money.

Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) is a new method of organ preservation which replaces the conventional icebox, using a machine which restores the flow of blood at body temperature allowing the liver to function during storage.

This results in less injury and allows the surgeon to assess the organ’s viability.

The UK-designed and manufactured NMP device proposed in this study is already in use in small numbers of transplants in all of the UK’s seven liver transplant units. 

Currently, the machine is used in less than 1 in 10 transplants in the UK. Funding for the machine has mostly relied upon charities, because this technology has not yet been funded by the NHS.

Transplant centres will be offered the use of NMP for livers which are less likely to be used to see if the availability of NMP is able to increase the numbers of livers transplanted successfully.

The utilisation and outcomes of these livers will be compared to historic outcomes for livers that were stored in an icebox.

We will also collect information about the overall cost of the new technology compared to the old, so that the NHS can decide whether any benefit is sufficiently cost-effective to fund.

We would collect data about you and your transplant to see if having a NMP machine routinely available can improve decision making.

This study is not designed to test whether the technology itself works and is safe – this has been established in previous clinical trials.

We would collect information about your operation and the outcomes from your transplant when you attend routine hospital appointments for one year after your transplant.

This includes information during the transplant operation, during your stay in hospital, and at clinic appointments at 3 months and 12 months after your transplant.

When assessing whether a new treatment is cost-effective, it is important that we understand your quality of life.

We would therefore like you to complete a short quality-of-life questionnaire before your transplant and at 3 and 12 months afterwards.

This questionnaire takes around 5-10 minutes to complete and includes questions about your mobility, ability to care for yourself, activity levels, pain levels and symptoms of anxiety and depression.