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UPMC Marks 20th Anniversary of its First Liver Transplant

PITTSBURGH, Pa. · March 1, 2001· by TNN Medical Reporter Virginia Baskerville

More than 11,300 transplants of all kinds later, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center marked the 20th anniversary of its first liver transplant on February 26.

In press releases describing the medical center's progress over the past 20 years, UPMC lauded the work of transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD, who performed the center's first liver transplant and has made a host of other contributions since. "The extraordinary impact of Dr. Starzl's work can be seen in the fact that forms of organ transplantation that were viewed as medical miracles just 20 years ago now are an accepted part of medical practice throughout the country and around the world," UPMC said.

The UPMC faculty's long list of achievements over the past two decades includes:

• 1981: Pittsburgh's first liver transplants are performed. The recipients of the first successful adult and pediatric liver transplants, who were 26 and at 2 years old at transplantation, are still alive.
• 1983: Clinical experience at the University of Pittsburgh in large part influences the decision by the Food and Drug Administration to approve the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine.
• 1984: Surgeons at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh perform the world's first heart and liver transplant.
• 1990: A 15-year-old girl receives the first successful pancreatic islet cell transplant, and UPMC surgeons amass the world's first successful series of transplants of the small intestine.
• 1992: Surgeons perform the world's first baboon-to-human liver transplant.
• 1994: The antirejection drug FK-506, developed by University of Pittsburgh researchers, receives FDA approval.
• 1998: Researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh begin the world's first trial that delivers donor bone marrow into the thymus during heart transplantation as a means to induce tolerance.
• 2001: UPMC begins to offer adult-to-adult living donor liver transplants.

For Your Information:

• For links to a variety of statements from UPMC marking the anniversary, see www.upmc.edu/NewsBureau/tx/20yeartx/default.asp.

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