MELD (Model for End-stage Liver Disease) Calculator

MELD (Model for End-stage Liver Disease): Explanation and clinical context The MELD score is an objective, laboratory-based model developed to predict short-term mortality in patients with advanced liver disease and to assist in prioritizing liver transplant allocation. The original formula (Kamath/Wiesner et al.) uses three laboratory inputs — serum total bilirubin (mg/dL), international normalized ratio (INR), and serum creatinine (mg/dL) — in a natural-logarithm linear model: MELD = 3.78 × ln(bilirubin) + 11.2 × ln(INR) + 9.57 × ln(creatinine) + 6.43. For practical use and to avoid negative logs, laboratory values less than 1.0 are set to 1.0; creatinine is capped at 4.0 mg/dL and is set to 4.0 if the patient has required dialysis twice in the prior 7 days (or equivalent continuous renal replacement therapy), per transplant allocation conventions.

The MELD score is conventionally reported as an integer and correlates with 3-month mortality and organ allocation priority; however, the exact mortality probability associated with each MELD value depends on the derivation cohort and subsequent recalibrations, and local transplant policy may use updated variants (for example MELD-Na or later revisions) to improve prognostic accuracy.