Liver Transplant Program

Liver transplant offers patients with end-stage liver disease a second chance at life. The UCSF Liver Transplant Program has made this chance possible for nearly 4,000 patients since its founding in 1998.

Our program, designated a center of excellence by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is known for outstanding outcomes and for helping pioneer techniques to make transplantation safer and more successful. We perform transplants using both deceased and living donors, and are able to perform complex transplants on patients with complicating health conditions, such as portal vein thrombosis. Our team also created new criteria for transplanting liver cancer patients, which are now used in transplant centers across the world and have allowed more patients to become eligible for transplant.

Each patient's treatment team includes surgeons, hepatologists, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, dietitians and social workers. Liver transplant pathologists and interventional radiologists also help accurately diagnose and manage liver disease and liver cancer progression before transplant. Our dedicated transplant unit is staffed by nurses and other providers who specialize in caring for liver transplant patients.

Download our new patient handbook (PDF).

Our Outcomes

UCSF's adult liver transplant patients have a one-year survival rate that consistently exceeds the national average, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). In SRTR's most recent reporting period, our liver transplant recipients had a survival rate of 93.48 percent one year after transplant, compared with a national average of 92.82 percent, and an expected survival rate – meaning the predicted survival rate based on variables indicating how sick or healthy our recipients are – of 92.47 percent.

More outcomes data is available from SRTR and from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.