Liver transplantation is the standard treatment for end-stage liver disease， but it has long been limited by the shortage of donor livers. In clinical practice， three types of donor liver （domino donor livers， small-for-size grafts， and steatotic donor livers） are limited due to issues such as metabolic defects， insufficient volume， and poor quality. This article systematically reviews the definition， clinical application， and bottlenecks of the above three types of donor livers and elaborates on the unique value and clinical practice advances of auxiliary liver transplantation （a special surgical procedure that retains part or all of the recipient’s own liver and superimposes donor liver function support） in avoiding small-for-size syndrome， compensating for metabolic defects， and expanding the application of marginal livers， in order to provide a targeted clinical practice reference for optimizing liver transplantation strategies for end-stage liver disease and improving donor liver utilization rate.