Liver Transplant

The primary goal of our Liver Transplant Program, recognized as one of the nation's leading centers for pediatric and adult liver transplants, is to return liver recipients to as near to normal a lifestyle as soon as possible.

Designated a "Center of Excellence" by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, our team has transplanted livers into 1,328 recipients, including 186 children. Children who receive new livers at our medical center have a survival rate of more than 95 percent after one year and 90 percent after five years. After liver transplant, most children return to a normal quality of life and catch up or accelerate growth. We have a number of former patients who have given birth to their own healthy children.

For many years, one of the problems in doing liver transplants in children was the difficulty of finding small donor organs from cadavers. However, a new procedure allows a living person to donate a segment of a liver, which grows to the appropriate size in the recipient whether child or adult. The donor's remaining liver grows additional tissue.

Our liver transplant research has included testing new anti-rejection drugs, contributing to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Liver Transplant Database, anti-rejection studies and establishing procedures for treating Hepatitis B and liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) patients with transplants.

Read about the personal experiences of our liver transplant patients.

For information or to make an appointment, please call:
Liver Transplant Program (415) 476-5892

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Children's Hospital.
Last updated May 8, 2007