Posts Tagged ‘transplant center’

A Not So Standard New Year’s for Dr. Nicole Turgeon

February 10th, 2012 By Emory Transplant Center

Dr. Nicole Turgeon, Emory Transplant

Dr. Nicole Turgeon

Just before New Year’s Day of 2012 you couldn’t find Dr. Nicole Turgeon, Emory kidney and pancreas transplant surgeon inside Emory Hospital walls as she normally is. Instead, Dr. Turgeon was taking time out of her holiday schedule for a cause she really believes in– organ donation. Dr. Turgeon jetted off to Pasadena, CA on December 29, 2012 to help decorate the Donate Life float for the Rose Bowl Parade.

“Although a small gesture, I wanted to pay tribute to the families who so selflessly give the gift of life to others,” she says of the experience. “I have seen the float on TV over the past several years and had wanted to participate. I was able to make it work this year with the incredible support of my family.”

Each year for the past six years, Donate Life has decorated a Rose Bowl Parade float with flowers. This year’s parade had the theme, “Just Imagine…,” and was viewed by millions of people at the event and on national television.

The Donate Life float had floral depictions of clock towers of the world, and six of the towers had 72 floral portraits memorializing deceased donors. The clocks were animated and rotated to mark the Donate Life theme, “One More Day,” and to recognize the value of time. Leading the float was a dedication garden honoring thousands of organ, eye and tissue donors and recipients nationwide, with roses in vials that had personalized messages. Twenty-eight transplant recipients, living donors or family members of donors rode on the float during the Rose Bowl Parade.

The Donate Life float had floral depictions of clock towers of the world, and six of the towers had 72 floral portraits memorializing deceased donors. The clocks were animated and rotated to mark the Donate Life theme, “One More Day,” and to recognize the value of time. Leading the float was a dedication garden honoring thousands of organ, eye and tissue donors and recipients nationwide, with roses in vials that had personalized messages. Twenty-eight transplant recipients, living donors or family members of donors rode on the float during the Rose Bowl Parade.

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Transplant for Type 1 Diabetes? Julie Allred’s Story

November 22nd, 2011 By Emory Transplant Center

Julie Allred, Islet Transplant Patient

Julie Allred

When Julie Allred heard that Emory was exploring alternate treatment options for patients with “brittle” or unstable type 1 diabetes, she didn’t realize that she would be the first to receive her transplant via a minimally invasive transplant technique in the interventional radiology suite at Emory Hospital, instead of the operating room.

Julie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 10. She got her first insulin pump in 1992 and has used several different types of pumps over the years. Despite her efforts to carefully watch her diet and test regularly, she developed many problems over the past couple of years with unstable hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

Living with hypoglycemia affected Julie’s ability to do many of things she enjoyed. She was constantly worried about how she could or would be affected by the unpredictable changes in her blood sugar, including being caught unaware at night while asleep. Julie was never free—day or night—from the worry of a condition called hypoglycemic unawareness, which unpredictably causes unconsciousness.

“I wanted to have the transplant because I’ve seen so many changes in the treatment of diabetic patients over the years, from the first glucometers to new medications,” Julie says. She was placed on Emory’s islet transplant wait list in early July and received the call eight days later while at her dentist’s office on July 19, which was “a record for the shortest wait,” she notes.

Julie lives several hours from Atlanta in the Charlotte, NC, suburb of Concord, where she has worked as a nurse for the past 20 years in obstetrics and pediatrics. Julie made the trip to Atlanta for her islet transplant at Emory, which was performed by Dr. Kevin Kim, director of interventional radiology and image guided medicine, and Dr. Nicole Turgeon, kidney, pancreas and islet transplant surgeon.

“Our protocol is designed to treat patients who have had type 1 diabetes for at least five years and have experienced severe hypoglycemic unawareness,” reports Dr. Turgeon. She is principal investigator of the study and collaborated with Dr. Kim for more than a year to develop Emory’s protocol.

“We’re able to perform this type of transplant because of Dr. Kim’s expertise in image guided treatment of liver tumors in the interventional radiology suite and Emory’s experience in islet transplantation and the development of new treatment regimens to protect transplant grafts from rejection,” she says.

According to Dr. Kim, “The interventional radiology procedure involves a small access. We thread guidewires and catheters and a central line through the patient’s right side into the portal vein, which leads into the liver. The entire system is through a less than a quarter inch skin access, and there are no stitches required—only a bandage on her skin. There is no general anesthesia required, and the entire procedure is performed under moderate sedation. In fact, we were talking to Julie during the entire procedure.” The fragile islets implanted in Julie’s liver serve to take over the job of making insulin.

Julie Allred with her daughter at Disneyland

Julie with her daughter at Disneyland.

The conventional islet transplant involves a two- or three-inch incision in the abdomen. This open surgical approach can be painful, whereas, Julie experienced no side effects and took only one pain pill following her less invasive transplant.

Julie has been able to gradually taper her insulin from about 50 units a day pre-transplant to 8 to 11 units a day four weeks post-transplant. She is now free from the unpredictable changes in her blood sugar and has had no hypoglycemia.

“My doctor told my mother when I was first diagnosed that I wouldn’t live to age 30 or be able to have children. But because of these advances, I’ve been able to prove him wrong twice,” Julie chuckles. Thanks to the procedure, Julie was able to happily celebrate her daughter Meredith’s 16th birthday at Disney World in January of this year, and turned 43 years old on July 23rd, two days after her transplant.

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Kevin Jordan Returns to WFU Baseball Practice After Kidney Transplant

October 5th, 2011 By Morgan Griffith

Kevin Jordan Wake Forest Kidney Transplant at EmoryIn February of this year, we shared with you a story of two amazing people, Kevin Jordan, a 19-year-old Wake Forest University baseball player, and his coach, Tom Walter, aka Coach Tom. To bring you up to speed, Kevin was diagnosed with ANCA vasculitis, an autoimmune disorder that typically leads to almost immediate kidney failure. At the time, Kevin was an all-star baseball player being actively recruited by both Wake Forest University (WFU) and Auburn, but he was faced with an illness that could potentially change his future not only in baseball, but in life. Kevin opted to join the crew at Wake Forest, but as his condition worsened, it became clear to both Kevin and Coach Tom that something would need to be done.

Kevin was in desperate need of a new kidney, and when neither his mother nor father met matching criteria to serve as a living donor, Coach Tom volunteered to be tested as a match. A match he was, and the story is pretty much a fairytale from there. Just months after joining the Wake Forest crew, Kevin and his coach would share a lifelong bond, making them family both on and off the field.

Kevin and Coach Tom came to Emory for the living donor kidney transplant, where transplant surgeons Dr. Kenneth Newell and Dr. Allan Kirk performed the procedure that not only gave Kevin renewed hope in life, but renewed hope that he would indeed return to the baseball diamond.

Fast forward seven and a half months later to today, Kevin is back and in good health, and the outfielder just attended the first Wake Forest Fall baseball practice of the year. Kevin’s recovery was not the only thing that’s proven to be speedy. Kevin ran the 60 yard dash in just 6.5 seconds, proving he has regained his health, strength, and speed. Kevin’s journey has struck a chord with people around the country, including those in the transplant community and sports communities. ESPN film crews attended the first WFU baseball practice of the year to share his progress with the country.

Our own Emory family members, particularly those who helped facilitate the kidney transplant from Coach Tom to Kevin have been equally touched and inspired by the story. “Kevin is a remarkable human being. And I think that’s one of the centerpieces of this story,” Dr. Allan Kirk, one of Kevin’s transplant surgeons said at the post-transplant press conference back in February. His recovery since that day has been equally as inspiring and remarkable, “when Kevin came to us, he was in bad shape, but he never lost hope. What he went through could have very easily derailed his plans. He’s a fighter. Coach Tom saw that in him, and so did we. Both myself and Dr. Newell have been touched to play a part in helping Kevin return to the sport that he loves, and in bringing a coach, player, team and community together to rally around someone who is truly a remarkably inspiring person. We’re very much looking forward to seeing what he accomplishes in the years to come,” remarks Dr. Kirk.

Read more on Kevin’s journey & his kidney transplant.

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Transplant Patients Benefit from Telemedicine Follow-Up Care

July 29th, 2011 By Emory Transplant Center

Transplant TelemedicineTelemedicine, now that is a word that either sounds from the future, or a phone call you get right when you sit down for dinner. At Emory though, telemedicine and organ transplantation are two medical innovations that work symbiotically to improve access to health care, patient outcomes, and the overall well-being for our Emory transplant patients.

Beyond providing consistent care at Emory’s Transplant Center, it is imperative that transplant patients have adequate follow-up care for a successful post-transplant recovery.  Transplant patient, Ken Sutha, winner of multiple medals at the National Kidney Foundation’s U.S. Transplant Games, is living proof of the importance of follow-up care. Via telemedicine, Emory physicians stay in contact and provide guidance in keeping transplant patients like him healthy.

Patients at Emory come from all over our large state of Georgia, including many from rural areas with limited access to appropriate health care. Today, after transplant patients are discharged from the hospital following surgery, they have the option to get their laboratory test and clinic visits done virtually over a telehealth network. This allows us to serve our transplant patients, and especially those outside of Atlanta with convenient and effective follow-up care.

Emory started its transplant telehealth program in January 2009 in an effort to increase access to health care throughout the state and in the past three years, it has seen substantial growth. Kevin Clark, Emory’s transplant department business manager, said the program is on track to have nearly 100 encounters with patients this year.

“We looked at 41 patients over the past couple of years to get an idea of true benefit and what we found was that these patients actually saved about 9,400 miles of drive time,” Clark said. With 33 patient presentation sites around the state of Georgia, transplants patients from Florida are also making use of the telehealth network. Ocala, Florida, resident Frank Brickey traveled to Tifton, Georgia, regularly for evaluations with his Emory transplant physicians following a kidney transplant in October 2008. Rather than making the six-hour drive to Atlanta for each visit and staying overnight, he only had to drive three and half hours and could make it a day visit.

“There is no waiting time, you just went right in and they take your vitals and you sit down in front of the teleprompter on the screen and communicate with the doctor face-to-face,” Brickey said. “It is very beneficial in that they know about you and it’s neat to have that contact with them. It is very reassuring.”

Brickey and other patients have said the staffs at telehealth sites are professional, easy to work with,and relatable, making this post surgery option an easy and steadfast choice. Being able to stay in contact with the physicians who actually performed their transplant procedure proved to be a huge benefit when complications arose, or just for the
peace of mind of communicating with the doctor who knows the patient best.

“I would definitely encourage anyone that has had a transplant at Emory or anywhere else that they stay close to the team that worked on them, with their physician and with their coordinators,” Brickey said.

Since Emory started its telehealth initiative, the program has seen substantial growth, a true tribute to not only the system, but the doctors, nurses, technicians, and patients, all who collaborate together to make telehealth not only successful, but revolutionary, for the post-transplant care.

To learn more about the Emory Transplant Center, visit: http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/transplant-center/index.html target=”_blank”

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Top Transplant Doctors in Atlanta are at Emory

July 8th, 2011 By Emory Transplant Center

Each year, Atlanta magazine recognizes the top doctors in the metro Atlanta area as ranked by a thorough physician-led research process. The 2011 Atlanta Magazine Top Docs list included 318 doctors from across the Atlanta area and across specialties, highlighting the cream of the crop in specialties ranging from pediatric to geriatric services and everything in between. We’re very pleased to announce that not only can you find over 100 of the doctors recognized this year here at Emory, seven of them are our very own transplant team members!

Our Emory Transplant Center and its physician team are unique in that they are part of a multidisciplinary team providing care in seven core transplant specialty areas: kidney transplant, pancreas transplant, heart transplant, hand transplant, islet transplant, liver transplant & lung transplant. All of our doctors here at Emory Healthcare play a role in changing and saving lives, but often times our transplant team and the treatments they provide touch the lives of our patients and their families on a deeper level. And more often than not, receiving treatment from our transplant specialists is their last, if not only option. Thankfully, based on our program’s rankings, both from a statistical post-transplant quality outcome perspective, and the perspective of the physician research team, researchers at Castle Connolly Medical LTD, and Atlanta Magazine, the Emory Transplant Center is a great option to have.

We again congratulate each of our transplant surgeons for their dedication to providing outstanding patient centered care for our patients and families faced with less than idea circumstances that can warrant organ transplantation. It is because of our multidisciplinary team of transplant specialists and their compassion, that recognition such as the Atlanta Top Doctors rankings is given. If you’d like to shout out a particular transplant doctor who has impacted your life, please do so in the comments below. You can also find the listing of transplant surgeons recognized in this year’s rankings below. If you’re interested, check out the full list of Emory Healthcare doctors recognized as the best doctors in Atlanta.

Pancreas & Kidney Transplant Doctors:

  • Chris Larsen, MD, DPhil – Transplant Surgeon
  • Kenneth Newell, MD – Transplant Surgeon

Liver Transplant Doctors:

  • Stuart Knecthle, MD – Transplant Surgeon

Lung Transplant Doctors:

  • Seth Force, MD – Transplant Surgeon

Heart Transplant Doctors:

  • Andrew Smith, MD – Transplant Surgeon
  • Javed Butler, MD – Cardiologist

Hand Transplant Doctors:

  • Linda Cendales, MD – Transplant Surgeon

 

 

 

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Hope for Kidney Transplant Patients Confirmed with FDA Approval of Drug Discovered at Emory

June 17th, 2011 By Morgan Griffith

After decades of research and testing, the FDA approves belatacept, and a new class of transplant drugs first discovered by Emory doctors.

Back in September, Dr. Christian P. Larsen, Director of the Emory Transplant Center, shared a story with you here on our blog about belatacept, a new medication that was being studied to determine its ability to help block the immune system from graft rejection after kidney transplants. It’s been less than a year since we shared that story on belatacept with you, and since that time, the FDA has now approved belatacept for use for that exact purpose.

Christian Larsen, Emory Transplant Center Director

Dr. Christian Larsen, Director of Emory Transplant Center

Dr. Thomas Pearson

Dr. Thomas Pearson, Surgical Director, Kidney Transplant Program

Since the early 1990s, Emory surgeon-scientists Christian P. Larsen, MD, DPhil and Thomas C. Pearson, MD, DPhil have been searching for ways to promote immune tolerance of a transplanted organ. In collaboration with other Emory researchers and researchers at Bristol-Myers Squibb, they played a leading role in discovering belatacept and driving its development. The recent FDA approval of use of belatacept is the first time a new class of drugs has been developed for transplant since the 1990s.

So what led to this approval of a new class of drugs? From a research perspective, in the 1990s, Larsen and Pearson found that CTLA4-Ig, a fusion protein of which belatacept is a modified type, could control graft rejection in mice, but found that it didn’t work as well in non-human primates. Bristol-Myers Squibb researchers then developed a panel of hundreds of modified forms of CTLA4-Ig, and sifted through the mutated proteins to find two that could make CTLA4-Ig bind tighter to its target and work more effectively. Larsen and Pearson then showed that the enhanced version could prevent graft rejection in a non-human primate model for kidney transplant at Yerkes Research Center.

Once the determination was made that modified versions of the CTLA4-lg fusion proteins could work to prevent graft rejection on primates, belatacept was developed and tested. In two parallel studies with more than 1,200 participants over two years, patients taking belatacept had similar graft survival rates to those taking the calcineurin inhibitor cyclosporine, while maintaining higher kidney function and lower blood pressure and cholesterol. In addition, belatacept can be given every few weeks, in contrast to calcineurin inhibitors, which must be taken twice a day.

There is still room for improvement, though. Compared with cyclosporine-treated patients, belatacept-treated patients had a higher rate of early acute rejection – a temporary flare-up of the immune system against the donated kidney. However, in most cases the acute rejection was successfully treated with drugs and did not lead to graft failure. The Emory Transplant Center team is researching approaches to reduce this risk.

“Our goal is to achieve a normal life span for kidney transplant patients, and have them survive dialysis-free,” Larsen, Director of the Emory Transplant Center, says. “We believe belatacept can help us move toward that goal.”

Clinical trials are now also being conducted to determine if belatacept will have similar positive outcomes on liver transplant and pancreatic islet transplant patients.

For more information on belatacept, you can check out the video below. If you have additional questions, leave them in the comments for Dr. Larsen or Dr. Pearson and we’ll make sure they see them and give you a response!

For more information on the FDA’s approval of belatacept, visit: http://shared.web.emory.edu/whsc/news/releases/2011/06/fda-approves-transplant-drug-that-preserves-kidneys,-avoids-toxicity.html

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Emory Team Member Shares Living Donor Story in Honor of Donate Life Month

April 15th, 2011 By Morgan Griffith

Pamela Emory Employee Living Donor

Pamela poses in front of a picture of her with her sister at Emory University Hospital

Lots of big news in the Emory transplant world as of late. We performed the Southeast’s first hand transplant, our 300th lung transplant, and most of you probably heard about the touching story of Wake Forest University baseball player, Kevin Jordan, and his coach, Tom Walter, who came to Emory to participate in a living donor kidney transplant. This last story, more than any other, has brought a tremendous amount of awareness around the notion of living donor transplants. April is Donate Life Month, and as such, we thought it appropriate to highlight another touching living donor transplant story, this one, between a member of the Emory family, Pamela Lesane, and her sister. We recently interviewed Pamela, who works for Emory Healthcare in Guest Services, about her journey as a living donor.

Morgan: Pamela, thanks so much for helping us promote awareness of living donor transplants. Tell us, where did your journey as an organ donor begin?

Pamela: My sister has suffered with kidney disease ever since she was born. At the time of the transplant she was suffering from both high blood pressure and kidney disease. After I started at Emory, I came into contact with a transplant coordinator who asked me if my sister had ever been evaluated for a transplant. She had not yet been evaluated, and a few weeks later my sister came to Emory and was placed on the waiting list. I asked to be the first one tested as a possible donor candidate. It turned out I was a match and the rest is history.

Morgan: What was the actual donation and transplant experience like for both of you?

Pamela: It was a blessing to finally be able to help my sister after watching her suffer her whole life with kidney disease. My sister often tells me that it’s like her life has started fresh since the transplant.  Her recovery time was short, only about 2 weeks, and she was able to notice an improvement in the way she felt within just a couple of days. Overall it was a wonderful experience for the both of us and brought us even closer than we already are.

Morgan: You mentioned you and your sister are closer now, specifically, how has the organ donation and kidney transplant affected your relationship with your sister?

Pamela: While my sister was on dialysis she was never able to travel as she had to come into the hospital three times a week. After the transplant, we were able to reach a new connection as we were able to travel and spend more time together. We have always been close but through the whole transplant experience we grew closer and are now able to spend more time together, which is wonderful.

Morgan: That’s wonderful to hear. Would you serve as her living donor again? Do you have any regrets?

Pamela: If I could go back in time I would do the transplant over and over again. I have absolutely no regrets, I was able to better my sister’s quality of life and we became closer as a result.

Morgan: Do you now encourage other people to consider being a living organ donor? If so, why?

Pamela: I do encourage other people to consider donation because it truly gives one individual the opportunity to provide someone with a second chance and a new lease on life. Especially if that person is a loved one, the satisfaction of being able to help a family member or friend get a fresh and healthy start to life is a wonderful feeling.

Morgan: How has working in health care changed your awareness and comfort levels with organ donation?

Pamela: If I hadn’t started working at Emory, I would never have come into contact with the people who made the transplant possible. Working in the health care field made me feel more at ease with the whole transplant process, because it was my peers who were looking out for both myself and my sister. I was able to listen to the doctor with a high level of comfort and was able to easily move forward with the transplant. That’s part of why sharing this story was so important to me. I realize that not everyone has the opportunity I did to be informed of the possibility of being a living donor. If you know someone in need of a transplant, it’s certainly worth looking into.

Morgan: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the experience?

Pamela: I would just like to thank the Emory community and specifically the transplant team because they truly changed my sisters life and our relationship.

If you have questions for Pamela, or would like to comment on her tremendous story, please use the comments field below.

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Emory Performs First Hand Transplant in Georgia & Southeast, 14th Procedure in U.S.

March 28th, 2011 By Morgan Griffith

Hand Transplant Story

A truly ground breaking procedure took place here at Emory this weekend. Transplant surgeons at Emory University Hospital have successfully completed the program’s first hand transplant. Not only is the complete hand transplant a first for Emory, but also the first hand transplant in the Southeast and only the 14th such procedure in the country. Emory transplant specialists performed this rare complete hand transplant procedure for a 21-year-old student out of Florida whose arm was amputated at the age of 1 due to Kawasaki Disease.

The hand transplant surgery lasted for 19 hours on Saturday, March 12 and involved a true multidisciplinary effort, including two teams (one dedicated to the patient and one to the donor arm) of transplant surgeons, specialists, nurses, and support staff. Since completion of the hand transplant, the patient has begun rehabilitation at Emory and will continue to rehabilitate in Atlanta for the next several months. As an IT major, when asked how the transplant would impact her life, her face lit up as she said, “I just want to be able to type.”

Emory’s Hand Transplant Program, established in 2007, is led by Dr. Linda Cendales, the only person in the United States with formal training in both hand and transplant surgery. Cendales is responsible for organizing the team that performed the first hand transplant in the U.S. and joined the Emory team from a program in Louisville that conducted 6 of the hand transplantations performed in the U.S.

If you have questions on the procedure or Emory’s Hand Transplant Program, please leave them in the comments section below.

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Good Things Come in Twos (x2!) for Henry County Woman

March 18th, 2011 By Morgan Griffith

Over five years ago, Kerry King felt very sick with prolonged episodes of nausea, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, and swelling.  She visited a community-based medical clinic, but her blood pressure was so high, they sent her to a local hospital where where she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and an enlarged heart.

After her diagnosis, an ambulance rushed Kerry to Emory University Hospital where she was admitted to an intensive care unit and diagnosed with a rare lung disorder, primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH.) PPH is characterized by increased pressure in the pulmonary artery, whereby the pulmonary artery carries oxygen-poor blood from the lower chamber on the right side of the heart to the lungs where it picks up oxygen.

After a heart catheterization and battery of other tests, Kerry was discharged from Emory University Hospital and returned home to Henry County with around-the-clock intravenous medication to mange the symptoms. On medication 24/7 for nearly five years, Kerry was forced to live a very limited lifestyle. Daily tasks became a major challenge, “I couldn’t even walk up the stairs to the bedroom at night – my husband carried me.” Trips to the hospital became more frequent and it became clear something had to be done.

Two days after Christmas in 2009, Kerry was placed on a lung transplant list at Emory, for not just one, but a double lung transplant. With her condition worsening by the day and after being informed she had about six weeks to live, all she could do was wait. And with nearly 2,000 people in the U.S. currently awaiting a lung transplant, finding two lungs for Kerry’s transplant had the potential to pose a serious barrier in saving the life of this Hampton, GA native.

Less than a month later, the good news came, and now, Kerry counts herself among the most lucky to have found a double lung transplant in time to save her life. Today, just over a year removed from her life-transforming experience, Kerry counts her lucky charms in the gifts that surround her each day, her twin sons, Justin and Austin, and the second chance at life she has thanks to her transplant that took place at Emory University Hospital.

After months of rehabilitation, Kerry returned home from the hospital.  That night, Kerry was enjoying her family and when bedtime for her twins came around, her son Justin went to the stairs and called to his Daddy to complete the only nightly routine he remembered in his young life, “Daddy, it’s time for you to carry Mommy upstairs.”   But on this night, for Kerry, those stairs were no longer a challenge.

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Emory Transplant Center Achieves and Sustains Outstanding Quality Outcomes

February 23rd, 2011 By Emory Transplant Center

Transplant Center OutcomesThe idea of replacing an organ via transplant can be a scary topic for people faced with a condition that may require one. At Emory, we’re consistently taking steps to improve transplant survival rates and hopefully, remove some of this fear for our patients. We’ve just received results from the January 2011 transplant center-specific report on outcomes from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). We’re very pleased to announce that the Emory kidney transplant program, liver transplant program, and lung transplant program have all demonstrated consistently strong and in some cases better-than-expected patient outcomes.

Kidney Transplant

  • Emory’s overall one-year graft survival rate of 95.85% for the most recent cohort studied (July 2007 – December 2009) is statistically higher (p = .026) than the expected rate of 92.81%.
  • Emory’s living-donor graft survival rate of 100% is statistically higher (p =.033) than the expected rate of 96.36%.
  • Emory’s deceased donor graft survival rate is also numerically higher than expected (93.69% observed vs. 90.95% expected).

We’re pleased to also note that in 2010, the Emory transplant team performed 207 kidney transplants, and 22 pancreas transplant procedures – the largest number of transplants in the history of the kidney and pancreas transplant program. Of the 207 kidney transplants, 31% (64) involved living donors.

Lung Transplant

  • Emory’s one-year patient survival rate for the latest cohort (July 2007 – December 2009) is 90.14%, compared to a risk-adjusted expected rate of 82.74%.
  • Emory’s graft survival rate is 85.29%, compared to a risk-adjusted expected rate of 81.10%.

This past year, the Emory Transplant Center and team of transplant doctors performed its 300th lung transplant. The lung program has come a long way to reach this milestone, performing 35 transplants in 2010, a 300% increase over the annual total just 10 years ago.

Liver Transplant

Emory’s liver transplant program continues to achieve and sustain outstanding outcomes, with patient survival rates >91% following transplantation.

Since July 2008, our surgical transplant team has performed 241 liver transplantations (216 liver only, 25 liver/kidney combination transplants). Between January 1, 1988 – November 30, 2010, Emory has performed 67.9% (1,496 of 2,203) of all liver transplants in the state of Georgia.

Our transplant center continues to excel with statistically significant patient organ transplantation outcomes, demonstrating a commitment to high quality and patient success. If you have questions about our transplant program or outcomes, please leave them in the comments section below.

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