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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transplant. Dec 18, 2025; 15(4): 110496
Published online Dec 18, 2025. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i4.110496
Published online Dec 18, 2025. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i4.110496
Overcoming barriers and expanding opportunities in liver transplantation in Mexico
Jose Alonso Avila-Rojo, Froylan David Martínez-Sánchez, Luis Alejandro Rosales-Rentería, David Aguirre-Villarreal, Ignacio García-Juárez, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Froylan David Martínez-Sánchez, Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital General Dr. Manuel Gea Gonzalez, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Alan G Contreras, Maximiliano Servin-Rojas, Department of Transplant Surgery, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States
Rodrigo Cruz-Martinez, Department of Transplantation, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Alejandro Ramírez-del Val, Department of HPB Surgery and Abdominal Transplantation, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Daniel Zamora-Valdés, Department of Hepatobiliary Sciences and Organ Transplantation, King Abdulaziz Medical City-Riyadh, Riyadh 14611, Saudi Arabia
Pilar Leal-Leyte, Department of Organ Transplantation, Navy Medical Center, Mexico City 04470, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Jonathan Aguirre-Valadez, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hospital Angeles Pedregal, Mexico City 10700, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Victor Manuel Paez-Zayas, Aczel I Sánchez-Cedillo, Department of Organ Transplantation, Hospital General de Mexico Dr. Eduardo Liceaga, Mexico City 06720, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Alejandro Lugo-Baruqui, Department of Transplant, Hospital Ángeles del Carmen, Guadalajara 44670, Jalisco, Mexico
Joshue David Covarrubias-Esquer, Unidad de Hepatología y Trasplante Infantil, Unidad de Nutrición Infantil, Guadalajara 4662, Jalisco, Mexico
Francisco I García-Juárez, Department of Gastroenterology and Transplantation, Centro Medico Nacional 20 de Noviembre, Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado, Mexico City 03104, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Isaac Ruiz, Department of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Montreal H2X 3E4, Quebec, Canada
Co-first authors: Jose Alonso Avila-Rojo and Froylan David Martínez-Sánchez.
Author contributions: Avila-Rojo JA and Martínez-Sánchez FD contributed equally to this work as the co-first authors of the paper; Avila-Rojo JA, Martínez-Sánchez FD and Rosales-Rentería LA contributed equally to the conception, design, and drafting of the manuscript; Aguirre-Villarreal D, Contreras AG and Cruz-Martinez R contributed to the literature review and critical content revision; Cruz-Martinez R, Servin-Rojas M, and Ramírez-del Val A contributed with specialized input on liver transplantation and national data interpretation; Zamora-Valdés D, Leal-Leyte P, and Aguirre-Valadez J reviewed and edited the manuscript for accuracy and clarity; Paez-Zayas VM, Sánchez-Cedillo AI, Lugo-Baruqui A, and Covarrubias-Esquer JD provided clinical perspectives and context regarding regional practice; García-Juárez FI, Ruiz I, and García-Juárez I critically reviewed the final version and approved it for submission; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ignacio García-Juárez, MD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, Avenue Vasco de Quiroga 15, Belisario Domínguez Secc 16, Mexico City 14080, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico. drinter77@gmail.com
Received: June 9, 2025
Revised: June 18, 2025
Accepted: September 12, 2025
Published online: December 18, 2025
Processing time: 164 Days and 12.9 Hours
Revised: June 18, 2025
Accepted: September 12, 2025
Published online: December 18, 2025
Processing time: 164 Days and 12.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Liver transplantation in Mexico remains disproportionately concentrated in a few urban centers and significantly lags behind regional benchmarks. This mini-review highlights the historical development of the transplant system, ongoing challenges such as low donor rates and fragmented healthcare structures, and opportunities for innovation through donation after circulatory death protocols, hepatitis C virus-positive graft utilization, and machine perfusion strategies. Implementing national reforms could bridge the gap between transplant capacity and patient need.