AUTHOR=Bismuth Henri 
  
TITLE=The birth of the European Liver transplant registry
  
JOURNAL=Transplant International
  
VOLUME=Volume 39 - 2026
  
YEAR=2026
  
URL=https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/transplant-international/articles/10.3389/ti.2026.17721
  
DOI=10.3389/ti.2026.17721
  
ISSN=1432-2277
  
ABSTRACT=This personal account, written on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the European Liver Transplant Registry (ELTR), traces the origins of the Registry from the earliest days of liver transplantation in Europe to its present scale. Beginning with a handful of pioneering centres in the 1970s and the scepticism that surrounded the procedure, the narrative follows the events of 1983 that transformed the field, the creation of an informal registry at Paul Brousse, and its extension to a European network following a founding meeting in Hannover in October 1985. It describes the early design choices that shaped the Registry, the methodological debates that defined its core definitions, and the scientific contributions that followed, including landmark findings on patient survival and on hepatitis B recurrence after transplantation, as well as the 1993 Paris Consensus Conference on indications for liver transplantation. The account closes with the Registry’s transition to new stewardship and its present scope, spanning more than 200,000 transplants recorded across 32 countries. The history illustrates how informal, trust-based collaboration among a small number of European surgeons gave rise to one of the longest-running transplant registries in the world.