History of the Program
Our pediatric liver transplant program just celebrated our 20th year of providing high quality services to infants, children, and adolescents with end-stage liver disease.
- 1984, Dr. Paul Colombani became Chief of Pediatric Transplantation at Hopkins
- October 1986, First adult liver transplant performed at Hopkins.
- March 1987, First pediatric liver transplant performed at Hopkins
- 1992, First living-related liver transplant performed for pediatric patient
- 1990s, Hopkins is one of only two transplant centers to first use tacrolimus, new anti-rejection drug that produces reduced side-effects
Special features of our program include:
- We are one of the largest programs in the US to perform living donor liver transplantation.
- We have the privilege of caring for patients in the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, consistently named as one of the top three children’s centers in the US.
- We have performed >170 transplants, with > 50 of these being living donor procedures. (As of December 2007)
- We have excellent patient and graft survival rates, comparable to those of any program which is willing to accept sick and complex patients.
- Our two liver transplant surgeons (Dr. Paul Colombani and Dr. Henry Lau) are among the few surgeons in the country with dual specialties in transplant surgery and pediatric surgery.
- Dr. Kathleen Schwarz, Director of the Pediatric Liver Center, is board certified in pediatrics, pediatric gastroenterology, and transplant hepatology.
