Liver Transplant Program at UPMC

At least 30 million Americans have some form of liver disease. And each year, doctors diagnose about 21,000 new cases of primary liver cancer.

If you're living with a chronic liver disease or liver cancer, you have hope at UPMC’s Liver Transplant Program of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute.

The philosophy of our program is to provide liver transplant services and surgery options to all who will benefit, including those that other transplant centers deem high-risk or unfit for transplant.

Our Liver Treatment and Transplant Services

Located in Pittsburgh, the UPMC Liver Transplant Program is part of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. This combined effort provides you with a multidisciplinary, team-based approach to your care.

Treatment options for adults who have liver diseases or malignancies include:

• Liver transplantation
• Liver resection for cancer
• Bile duct reconstruction
• Surgical and nonsurgical methods to reduce portal hypertension and variceal bleeding

The Liver Transplant Surgery Process: What to Expect

Our program accepts self-referrals and physician referrals. What happens after your doctor refers you to UPMC's Liver Transplant Program?

• Our team will review your medical history to see if you might be a good liver transplant candidate.
• If we think you are a good candidate and your insurance has been approved, we'll contact you to schedule a liver transplant evaluation. You'll have various tests and meet with a number of experts from the liver transplant team.
• Then, a multidisciplinary team will review your case and decide if a liver transplant is your best treatment option. We'll inform you of our decision within one week after your evaluation.

Why Choose UPMC's Liver Transplant Program?

• Our program is one of the oldest and largest in the United States.
• Since the program's inception in 1981, more than 6,000 adults have received liver transplants.

From the early years when Dr. Starzl pioneered a new field of surgery to more recent breakthroughs in immunosuppressive therapies, this progress has given hope to thousands of people with liver disease.

Meet some people who chose UPMC for liver transplant surgery.

Learn More About Liver Transplant and Organ Donation

The links below will open a new browser window.

UPMC's HealthBeat Blog:

• Living Donor: Medical Mondays
• Living Donor Liver Transplant: A Choice to Stop Waiting and Keep Living
• Can I Donate Certain Organs While I’m Still Alive?
• How to Register to Become an Organ Donor
• 6 Common Organ Donation Myths Debunked
• The Impact of One Organ Donor

From our Health Library:

• Liver Transplant for Hepatitis B
• Organ Transplant
• Organ Transplants: Antirejection Medicines
• Becoming an Organ Donor
• Living Organ Donation

About UPMC

A $21 billion health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates 89,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, and a more than 3.7 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania. In the most recent fiscal year, UPMC contributed $1.2 billion in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region’s most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution, and paid $587 million in federal, state and local taxes. Working in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC shares its clinical, managerial and technological skills worldwide through its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, and through UPMC International. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside on its annual Honor Roll of America’s Best Hospitals and ranks UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on its Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals. For more information, go to UPMC.com.