Advancements in LDLT were initially driven by the severe shortage of appropriate sized cadaveric livers for infants and small children. At the time the first Live Donor Liver Transplants were being performed in the late 1980’s, 50% of the children waiting for liver transplants were dying because an insufficient number of livers were available for them. At that time a small portion of an adult liver, usually taken from one of the parents, was transplanted into the child.

The procedure was further advanced in Asia, where cadaveric organ retrieval is considered culturally unacceptable and even illegal. It was in these countries that LDLT was first expanded to the adult population in the late 1990’s.

The founders of Thalia House, Drs. Elizabeth A. Pomfret and James J. Pomposelli, head the first team to successfully perform adult-to-adult LDLT in New England, and their program at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts currently ranks as the 3rd largest in the United States.