What is the immediate recovery?
Depending on how sick the child was before the transplant, there will be a variable course after the surgery. If the child comes from home and has been fairly well, the hospital course is usually not terrible: there is probably a day or two in the ICU, lots of tubes and lines to begin with, but they start to come out relatively quickly. Children stay in the hospital anywhere from nine or ten days for an older child to two weeks for babies, if it’s uncomplicated. If the child’s been really sick or has multi-organ disease ahead of time, then there is a longer hospitalization, maybe longer in the ICU, maybe adding a week or two to the course.

Maureen Jonas, MD, Medical Director, Liver Transplant Program

For what I do, for liver, intestine, kidney, if you’re a small child, you end up in the ICU. All the livers and intestines end up in the ICU for at least a day or two. If there’s good organ function, then the post-op course is going to be pretty smooth: they usually spend a few days in ICU, and then up to the floor for another week or two, and then home. But obviously, there is a high rate of complications in transplants, so whatever comes up, we deal with it as best we can.

Heung Bae Kim, MD, Surgical Director for Liver, Intestine, and Kidney Transplant Programs, Director of the Pediatric Transplant Center