biliary cirrhosis

My sister has billiary cirrhosis and I am willing to be a liver donor but she was told she needs a whole liver....is this common and why would a partial not work?

[mikesimon]

I am going to guess that it is because Primary Biliary Cirrhosis destroys the bile ducts.
With a living donor liver transplant the bile duct trunk is not as large as it is in a cadaver transplant so sewing the ducts together is more difficult. A not infrequent complication of liver transplantation is bile duct strictures or blockages or leaks and this would probably be significanty more likely with a living donor transplant because they would be working with much smaller ducts.
That is just my opinion.

Good luck,

Mike