Liver Transplant Cost in Germany

The cost of liver transplant in Germany typically ranges from $80,000 to $120,000 USD, depending on the hospital, city, and type of procedure.

A liver transplant replaces a failing liver with a healthy liver, or part of one, from a deceased or living donor. In Germany, the total depends on:

• Donor type: deceased or living donor.
• Intensive care: the first days after surgery.
• Hospital stay: usually 7 to 14 days.
• Anti-rejection medicines: taken long term.

Transplant costs depend on the package, and donor assessment, long-term medicines and readmissions may be billed separately. Ask exactly what an estimate includes.

NHS Blood and Transplant reports that people usually spend 7 to 14 days in hospital, starting in intensive care. About 93 in 100 are alive at one year and 83 in 100 at five years.

Medicines are usually reduced after about 6 months, and most people return to work after 3 to 6 months.

NHS Organ Donation reports a donor death risk of about 1 in 200 for right lobe and 1 in 500 for left lobe donation, with bleeding, infection or bile leaks in about 1 in 10. The donor's liver regrows to about 90% within 6 weeks.

Germany's Transplantation Act (§ 8) allows living donation of a kidney or part of a liver only by an adult who consents, and only to first- or second-degree relatives, spouses, registered partners, fiancés or people with a clear close personal bond.

Eurotransplant's allocation manual (2012 version) limits listings of patients living outside Eurotransplant countries for deceased-donor liver, heart and lung transplants to 5% of each centre's deceased-donor transplants in the previous year.

International patients are usually treated in Germany as self-paying patients: the hospital reviews the medical reports, sends a cost estimate and asks for an advance payment before admission, then settles the final bill after discharge.

Inpatient hospital care in Germany is billed under the German DRG system, which depends on the main diagnosis, other diagnoses and the procedures carried out, so the final amount is known only after the stay.

German missions ask applicants for a medical treatment visa for a letter from the treating hospital, a cost estimate and proof of an advance payment of at least 50% of the treatment cost.