Select a Medical Service | Liver Transplant

Welcome to the Department of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery

Welcome to the Department of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Lahey Clinic. We provide comprehensive care for people with diseases of the liver, as well as pre- and post-liver transplant patients.

Live Donor Liver Transplant Program Receives "UNOS-approved" Designation

In 2005, UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) reviewed the qualifications of personnel and the standard procedures of all programs performing live donor liver transplantation in the United States. Lahey’s program is now accredited by UNOS to provide this service, and is one of only 12 centers in the country to be approved in the initial review.

Surgical Highlights

Senior transplant surgeon James J. Pomposelli, MD, PhD, FACS

Roger L. Jenkins, MD, FACS, Chief of Surgery, performed New England's first successful liver transplant in July 1983.
Our surgical team has performed more than 300 liver transplants, including more than 100 live donor transplants, since coming to Lahey Clinic in June 1999.
Our adult live donor liver transplant program is the largest in New England, and the third largest in the United States.
In January 2000, our team performed the first domino liver transplant in New England.
Overall one-year patient survival for our liver transplant program of 91 percent.
Lahey is the only medical center in the United States to have successfully performed simultaneous live donor liver/kidney transplants (as of September 2005).
Our surgeons have performed more than 7,000 hepatobiliary and general surgery cases to date (September 2005).

Liver Transplant Program

At Lahey Clinic, we have a strong foundation for excellence in liver transplantation. Our Chief of Surgery, Roger L. Jenkins, MD, FACS, performed the first liver transplant in New England in July 1983. Since then, significant technological advancements in surgery, preoperative assessment and postoperative care have resulted in the ability to perform more complicated and innovative procedures safely.

Lahey is one of the nation's leading centers for adult liver transplants, and together with physicians at Children's Hospital Boston, we also perform a number of pediatric transplants. To date, our surgical teams have performed more than 1,000 liver transplants. Our liver transplant program holds one of the finest outcome records in the United States, with overall one-year patient survival of 91 percent.

Our multidisciplinary team of transplant surgeons, hepatologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, nurses, social workers, psychiatrists, financial coordinators and others expertly provides fully coordinated pre- and post- transplant care. Throughout the entire transplant process, these health care professionals are with patients and their families every step of the way, providing medical care, emotional support, financial coordination and much more.

Our transplant surgeons are among the most experienced in the nation at performing live donor liver transplant (LDLT) surgeries. In fact, Lahey's Live Donor Liver Transplantation program is the third largest in the nation, with more than 100 such surgeries performed to date (September 2005). On the "Testimonials" section of our Web site, you can actually read the first-hand accounts of some patients who have undergone LDLT surgery at Lahey. In addition, the "Photo Gallery" page contains pictures of our surgeons performing simultaneous live donor liver/kidney transplant surgery. Lahey is the only medical center in the United States to have ever successfully performed this highly technical, multidisciplinary procedure (as of September 2005). Six such surgeries have been performed at Lahey to date.