THURSDAY, Sept. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Women may have an edge on men when it comes to surviving liver transplant, a new British study finds.

The study of over 2,700 patients who received a liver transplant between 1985 and 2003 found that female patients live an average of 4.5 years longer than their male counterparts.

According to researchers at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, average survival time for the patients in the study was 22 years, compared with 29 years for a comparison group of healthy people of similar age.

Average life expectancy for female liver transplant patients was 26 years, compared with 18 for males. The average life expectancy for the general population was 31 years for women and 27 years for men.

Liver transplant patients ages 17 to 34 had an average life expectancy of 28 years. While this was the highest among the transplant patients, it fell far short of the average life expectancy of 51 years for people ages 17 to 34 in the general population.

Overall, patients who required a liver transplant due to primary liver disease had significantly longer survival times than those who had transplants due to hepatitis C, cirrhosis, or cancer.

The findings were published in the journal Gut.

More information

The American Medical Association has more about liver transplantation.