UPMC is a recognized leader in organ transplantation care, with a rich history in clinical research and innovation. Our program offers second-opinion services and routinely accepts medically complex patients who have been turned down for transplant procedures at other centers.
We're proud of the contributions and accomplishments that have allowed us to improve the lives of many of our patients.
Our Accomplishments and Milestones
Established in 1981, UPMC Transplant Services has performed more than 20,000 organ transplant surgery procedures, including liver, kidney, pancreas, kidney/pancreas, intestinal (small bowel), liver/intestinal, heart, heart/lung, double-lung, single-lung, and multiple-organ transplants.
Our accomplishments and milestones include:
Heart transplant
- With a history of more than 1,700 heart transplants over 40 years, the UPMC Heart Transplant Program is among the most experienced in the world.
- Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) reports UPMC as the national leader in 90-day survival rate after heart transplant, and UPMC is among the top nationally for survival rates at 30 days and one-year post-transplant.
- Our experts have been pioneering ventricular assist device (VAD) technology for more than 30 years. Our surgeons implanted the second Jarvik Artificial Heart as a bridge to transplant in 1985. UPMC was the first medical center to discharge a patient with a VAD in 1990. Since then, we have implanted more than 1,300 VADs.
- UPMC performed the world’s first heart-liver transplant in 1984, and the world’s first heart-liver-kidney transplant in 1989. UPMC also performed the nation’s first beating heart transplant.
- We now offer “bloodless” heart transplants for adult patients who need a transplant but cannot or choose not to receive blood components, including plasma, platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells.
- In 2012, UPMC was the second program in the world to surpass 3,000 heart, lung, and heart-lung transplant procedures.
Intestinal transplant
- UPMC has one of the largest intestinal transplant programs in the world.
- We have performed more than 670 combined adult and pediatric intestinal and multivisceral transplants, representing more than 11% of the world’s total intestinal transplants.
Kidney transplant
- Our team performs more than 200 adult kidney transplants each year.
- We bring decades of experience in both deceased-donor and living-donor transplants and offer donor exchange options that shorten patients' wait for an organ to become available.
- We exclusively perform minimally invasive living donor kidney surgeries using laparoscopic or robotic surgical technology.
- The UPMC Kidney Transplant Program at UPMC Harrisburg was the first program in Central Pa. to use the da Vinci Xi® by Intuitive system to perform a robotic living-donor nephrectomy.
Liver transplant
- Our team has performed more than 6,000 adult liver transplants to date. We have also performed more than 1,000 adult and pediatric living-donor liver transplant procedures.
Lung transplant
- Since our lung transplant program’s inception in 1982, we have performed more than 3,000 lung and heart-lung transplants.
- Approximately 30% of our recipients were declined for lung transplantation at other centers.
Pediatric transplant
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh has performed more than 3,900 pediatric transplants to date.
Accomplishments and milestones include:
Pediatric kidney transplant
- UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh performed its first pediatric kidney transplant in 1964.
- UPMC Children’s Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program was among the first in the world to use tacrolimus as its primary immunosuppressive agent. This has enabled the program to achieve long-term patient and graft survival rates that are among the best in the world.
- We offer preemptive kidney transplant, meaning a child can qualify for a kidney transplant prior to needing dialysis.
Pediatric liver transplant
- UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is a nationally recognized leader in pediatric liver transplants, having performed more than 1,700 procedures — the most of any center in the country.
- UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh leads the nation’s largest pediatric liver transplant network through its partnerships with the University of Virginia, Atrium Health in Charlotte, N.C., and AdventHealth in Orlando, Fla.
- Of the 29 centers in the United States performing pediatric living-donor liver transplant, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s hazard ratio estimates are ranked among the best in the nation in one-year patient graft survival, as well as three-year patient graft survival.
