Model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) exception guidelines: Results and recommendations from the MELD exception study group and conference (MESSAGE) for the approval of patients who need liver transplantation with diseases not considered by the standard MELD formula

Abstract

Richard B. Freeman Jr., Robert G. Gish, Ann Harper, Gary L. Davis, John Vierling, Leslie Lieblein, Goran Klintmalm, Jamie Blazek, Robert Hunter, and Jeffrey Punch Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Tufts–New England Medical Center, Boston, MA; Departments of Medicine and Transplantation and the Division of Hepatology and Complex GI, Physicians Foundation, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA; United Network for Organ Sharing, Richmond, VA; Baylor Regional Transplant Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX; Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Ochsner Multi-Organ Transplant Center, New Orleans, LA; and Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI