The UNC School of Medicine's Living Donor Liver Transplant Program is recognized by the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN) as a centre with expertise in providing living donor liver transplants. Sorabh Kapoor, Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Abdominal Transplant Division, Maryland, will serve as the program's surgical director.
The UNC School of Medicine's live donor liver transplant program is Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (Optn) as a centre with expertise to provide living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) as a timely liver transplant option. This full approval will allow referral doctors at UNC Hospitals to offer live donor liver transplant options to waitlist patients without having to move out of state for transplant surgery. The transplant team is now able to perform liver transplants on the appropriate candidates without waiting for the patient to become available for the donor organ to which they have passed away.
“They're very happy,” said Sorabh Kapoor, MD, assistant professor of abdominal transplant surgery at UNC School of Medicine. “Full approval is proof of the efforts of our entire team and of course our living donors and recipients who trusted us to take care of us.”
Liver resistant liver transplants allow patients suffering from liver failure to administer the transplant faster before the patient gets sick. Living donors can offer family, friends or loved ones a second chance to live. Overall benefits include short latency for transplants, excellent organ quality, selective surgery and the ability to help your loved ones.
Kapoor, the director of the UNC's Living Donor program, said that half of the country's states currently do not have transplant programs that provide live donor live liver transplants, with more than five programs each, each of which are 25-30. Live donor perform live liver transplants for years. Full approval from OPTN provides confidence to transplant patients currently listed on waiting lists that may be searching for certified living donor implantation centers and providers. The live donor liver transplant program is recognized as a safe and competent center to consider for live donor liver transplantation.
“This program began as an idea: a vision to address the growing need for innovative solutions for low-model low-model patients with end-stage liver disease (MELD),” the surgical director of the Transplant Surgery, Liver Transplant Program. “The support and unwavering determination of an exceptional team have transformed this vision into reality. This achievement could not be possible without the dedication and expertise of every member of the team.”
Over the past two years, the liver transplant team has tirelessly worked to build the program from scratch and complete the necessary transplants to ensure conditional approval from the Membership and Specialist Standards Committee (MPSC). The final stage, Optn approval, is currently solidifying the UNC program among several institutions in the country and providing liver transplants. Sorabh Kapoor, assistant professor of abdominal transplant surgery at the UNC School of Medicine, will be surgical director of the OF The Living Donor Liver Transplant Program.
