Taking into account that there is a shortage of organs for transplantation, the family transplants make up the alternative for transplanting the organs.
Transplanting the liver from the family donor is often the only way to salvage their own child's life. The decision of giving the part of one's own organ is the largest gift of life. On the other side there exists the doubt to the quality of the living donor's life. The qualifi cation of the family donor of liver is a stepwise process and it concerns: the giver's voluntary declaration after introduction of principles of family transplants, the risk for donor and the prognosis for recipient, and also the law for transplanting the organs. It involves tests of immunological compatibility of the potential donor's with the recipient, investigation of the donor's psychological profile and his social situation. The next stage is the information about the actual state of health, efficiency of the liver and different organs, infectious diseases in the past, invasive investigations defining the size and the anatomical conditions of the vessels of liver's donor. If results of these investigations are positive, the final qualification or the disqualification of potential related donor of liver is undertaken. The transplantation of segments of the liver to the child (the recipient) taken from family giver is preceded by the removal of the sick liver leaving in the whole inferior vena cava, because the graft does not possess it. In Children's Memorial Health Institute was conducted the first family transplant of the liver in 12.10.1999 in cooperation with the Department of General Surgery and the Liver Diseases of the Medical University of Warsaw. This Co-operation has brought to realization 143 family transplants of liver. Children's Memorial Health Institute is the only centre n Poland performing family transplants of liver in children. By these 10 years the organization of work of operating nurses' team taking the part in family transplants of liver changed due to the progress and the development of operating techniques, huge quantity of new and sophisticated medical equipment, new haemostatic materials as well as introduced standards and required medical procedures and indispensable trainings, the concentration on indicted tasks. The operating theatre of Children's Memorial Health Institute is a multiple room, with difficult cardiosurgery interventions, neurosurgery, surgical, urological as well as ophthalmology. Every one of these fields requires large knowledge as well as skill from the assisting intervention nurses. Such diversity gives large possibilities of development, but states also a huge challenge for the nursing team.

Keywords: The family transplant of liver the challenge for the operating nurses’ team