UNC School of Medicine’s Living Donor Liver Transplant program has been recognized by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as a center with expertise to offer Living Donor Liver Transplants. Sorabh Kapoor, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Abdominal Transplantation, will serve as the Surgical Director of the program.
UNC School of Medicine’s Living Donor Liver Transplant program has been recognized from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as a center with expertise to offer Living Donor Liver Transplants (LDLT) as an option for timely liver transplant. This full approval will now enable UNC Hospitals’ referring physicians to offer living donor liver transplant options to patients on the waitlist without them needing to travel out of state for transplant surgery. The transplant team can now perform liver transplants to suitable candidates without the patients waiting for a deceased donor organ to become available.
“This milestone is an important step in our endeavor to offer timely liver transplants to our patients,” said Sorabh Kapoor, MD, Assistant Professor of Abdominal Transplant Surgery at the UNC School of Medicine. “The full approval is a testimony to the efforts of the whole team and of course our living donors and recipients who trusted us to care for them.”
A living-donor liver transplant allows the patients suffering from liver failure to receive a transplant sooner – before a patient becomes sicker. A living donor can provide a second chance of life to family members, friends or loved ones. Overall benefits include shorter wait time for transplant, excellent organ quality, elective surgery, and the ability to help a loved one.
Kapoor, who is the surgical director of UNC’s living donor program, said that currently half of the states in the country do not have transplant programs that offer living donor liver transplants, and only 25 to 30 programs perform more than five living donor liver transplants each year. The full approval from OPTN will now provide confidence to currently listed transplant patients on the wait list who may be searching for an accredited living donor transplant center and providers. The Living Donor Liver Transplant program will now be recognized as a safe and competent center to consider for living donor liver transplants.
“This program began as an idea, a vision to address the growing need for innovative solutions for our low model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) patients,” said Chirag Desai, MD, FACS, professor of surgery, division chief of Abdominal Transplant Surgery, surgical director of the Liver Transplant Program. “With the support of an exceptional team and unwavering determination, we turned this vision into reality. This accomplishment wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication and expertise of every member of our team.”
Over the past two years, the liver transplant team worked tirelessly to build the program from the ground up, successfully completing the required transplants to secure conditional approval from the Membership and Professional Standards Committee (MPSC). The final stage, OPTN approval, now solidifies UNC’s program among the select few institutions in the country offering living donor liver transplants. Sorabh Kapoor, MD Assistant Professor of Abdominal Transplant Surgery at the UNC School of Medicine, will serve as Surgical Director of the of the Living Donor Liver Transplant Program.