Spoiler & speculation for House next week

[deelaundry]

Speculation for ep 5-10 and after: I think Wilson is going to undergo Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT) to save the POTW. "The donor's liver will regenerate approaching 100% function within 4–6 weeks and will almost reach full volumetric size with recapitulation of the normal structure soon thereafter," says Wikipedia, so the House team will use the six-week hiatus to be able to totally skip the "Wilson recovering" stage and the first ep in January will have him back to normal (or almost normal).

And for those concerned that RSL might use this to seek a permanent path back to full-time Broadway: "Death after LDLT has been reported at 0% (Japan), 0.3% (USA) and <1% (Europe), with risks likely to improve further as surgeons gain more experience in this procedure."

Your thoughts?

In unrelated news, who's going to buy Wilson the Mangroomer for Xmas?

Comments

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

Organ matching is usually done by blood type *and* HLA (human leukocyte antigen) type. HLAs are tissue antigens on the donor organ which, if they're "foreign" (i.e. not the same as the recipient's), will be detected by the recipient's T lymphocytes. This causes an immune reaction cascade that ends with the recipient rejecting the organ, and is why the recipient must take immunosuppressants for the rest of his/her life.

There are 6 major HLA antigens that have to match the recipient's HLA antigens for the best results. The fewer the matches, the greater the chance the body will reject the organ. Or, if the recipient is already immune-suppressed before the transplant, the higher the chance the T lymphocytes in the donated organ will attack the recipient's body ("graft vs host" disease).

Remember the episode about the PotW who was going to donate bone marrow to his older sick brother, except the PotW got sick? They couldn't find a perfect marrow match from non-related donors? That's why.