CLINICAL INNOVATION IN TRANSPLANTATION

UNC Firsts: Live Liver Donor

Dr. Chirag Desai and Dr. Sorabh Kapoor led a collaborative care team to perform the first liver transplant from a living donor at Carolina in almost twenty years. In this case, the donor daughter shared a portion of her liver with her (recipient) mother to treat life-threatening liver disease.

“It is extremely satisfying to offer this treatment to our patient, who didn’t have to undergo prolonged suffering while waiting for a deceased donor liver,” said Desai, who is also the surgical director of the Liver Transplant Program at Carolina. “A living donor transplant enabled her to get this surgery done in optimal time and she has had a great outcome.”

Now that the precedent has been set, UNC Health has announced it has expanded its transplant services to include living donors – making it the second program in North Carolina capable of performing the procedure. Read more about this milestone case here.