Digest This - Special Edition 2008 - (Page 8)

cleveland clinic cleveland clinic liver transplantation program grows When Cleveland Clinic announced on December 30, 2006, that it had performed its 1,000th liver transplant operation, the milestone, in many ways, personified the successful progress of its liver transplant program in recent years. “We’re ranked one of the nation’s largest liver transplant programs in terms of the volume of liver transplants we do,” says John Fung, MD, PhD, Chairman, Department Dr. John Fung What’s more, Cleveland Clinic’s liver transplant program was named one of the best in the country by an orthotopic Liver Transplant national survey identifying 10 exemplary programs in which organs were most efficiently utilized while maintaining excellent outcomes. “We’ve been able to achieve these strong results because we take a comprehensive approach to treating patients with liver diseases,” Dr. Fung explains. “We have excellent collaborative relationships among our experienced surgeons and physicians as well as other healthcare professionals in hepatology, endocrinology, nephrology, anesthesiology, psychiatry and other disciplines. We also have a strong team of radiologists, transplant physician assistants and nurse coordinators. All of them perform a critical role in running our top-rated liver transplantation program.” Additionally, the transplant program is more aggressive in assessing potential organs that in the past may not have been considered. For example, when there are doubts of an organ’s quality, a Cleveland Clinic team will examine the organ and run tests to determine whether the organ is suitable for transplantation. “Some livers are better than others. But if you know how to use them, most of the donor livers are safe and can work effectively for transplant patients,” Dr. Fung says. Medical innovation is another contributing factor that drives the transplant program’s success. For example, Cleveland Clinic continues expansion of surgical techniques for split liver transplantation to increase the number of organs available for patients. other innovations include bile duct reconstructions, ohio’s first liver/lung transplant and the first two liver-pancreas en bloc transplants. Surgeons also performed Ohio’s first heart/liver transplant and their first domino liver transplants for familial amyloid polyneuropathy. In addition, two mitral valve surgeries (one replacement, one repair) coupled with liver transplantation were performed. of Hepato-pancreatic-biliary and Transplant Surgery, Chairman of the Department of General Surgery and Director of the Cleveland Clinic Transplant Center. “In addition to our transplant team being well-versed in all forms of medical and surgical treatments, our outcomes are very good. We have better survival rates, we have shorter waiting times for our transplant patients and we are aggressive in searching for more organ donors.” In 2007, Cleveland Clinic surgeons performed 148 liver transplants, another record milestone. Just five years ago, only 35 liver transplants were performed at Cleveland Clinic. Wait-list death from 2005 to 2007 dropped from 19 percent to 11 percent. This decrease in wait-list death occurred despite a significant increase in patients with a MELD score greater than 21 (52 percent compared with 33 percent). Despite these changes, the program maintained graft and patient survival above the national averages, 83 percent and 90 percent, respectively. For more information, email digestthis@ccf.org {8} Digest This Special Edition | 2008

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Digest This - Special Edition 2008 Table of Contents Investigations Institute Overview Innovations Staff Research

Digest This - Special Edition 2008

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