new delhi a fatty liver is no more a bar if you want to donate a portion of the organ to save your near and dear ones who suffer from chronic liver conditions doctors at sir ganga ram hospital sgrh have started a unique programme to help donors who have fatty liver in a bid to utilize the donor pool optimallyunder the programme the donor with fatty liver is put on a restricted diet and sometimes on medication for a few weeks till he or she fits the transplant criteria so far sgrh doctors have done six transplants using liver of people who had fatty liver it is part of our extended criteria living donor programme through which we aim at making optimal use of the donor pool said dr a s soin chief liver transplant surgeon sgrhwhile assessing the donor for a transplant doctors closely examine the condition of his liver through ctscan there is a parameter called liver attenuation index lai which tells us about the condition of the liver only those who have lai 6 or more are considered for donation people with 5 or less have some degree of fatty liver disease said dr soin according to the organ transplant act only a family member can donate an organ doctors say a good number of donors are rejected as they have fatty liver disease despite meeting all the criteria many donors are rejected as they suffer from fatty liver disease it then becomes difficult for the patient to find another suitable donor within the family through this programme we put them on strict diet regime some of them also need medicines to bring their lai to 6 said dr soin the liver condition is closely monitored through ctscan donors who have lai between 2 and 6 stand 75 chance of crossing the 6 mark after undergoing treatment similarly donors who weigh less than the recipients are also rejected due to the size of their liver we need a large portion of the liver for a healthy person if the donor is underweight we put him on a high protein diet these two are big steps in optimally utilising the donor pool and they can save many lives said dr soin