The Vanderbilt Transplant Center performed a record number of solid organ transplants in fiscal year 2023 (FY 23) — 665 life-saving procedures among its adult and pediatric programs. The total number of transplants from FY 23, the period between July 2022 and the end of June 2023, is up 3% from the 645 transplants during the same period in FY 22.
Vanderbilt’s lung transplant program had a record fiscal year, with 80 transplants, a 29% increase over FY 22. Growth was also driven by kidney transplants, increasing 7% to 315 adult and pediatric transplants.
“Performing 665 solid organ transplants in a single year is an incredible accomplishment that could not be achieved without extraordinary teamwork and commitment,” said Joseph Magliocca, MD, professor of Surgery and director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. “It is truly a testament to the dedication of all people within the entire Vanderbilt University Medical Center.”
In the Adult Transplant program in FY 23, teams performed 301 kidney transplants (including simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants and pancreas-after-kidney transplants), 112 heart transplants, 130 liver transplants, and 80 lung transplants.
Pediatric transplant teams with Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt performed 14 kidney transplants, 21 heart transplants and seven liver transplants.
“The Transplant Center’s teams are making remarkable contributions to the lives of our patients and their families. Each transplant, made possible through the benevolence of our organ donors and their loves ones, represents a life renewed. I want to congratulate all those who support these programs on another outstanding year,” said C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for VUMC.
In 2020, VUMC exceeded 10,000 total transplants of all organs since its first kidney transplant in 1962. Over the years, Vanderbilt has had a succession of firsts. VUMC performed its first heart transplant in 1985, the Southeast’s first combined heart/lung transplant in 1987, first liver transplant in 1991, and first single-lung transplant in 1990. Vanderbilt completed its first successful double-lung transplant in 1994, first kidney-liver transplant in 1997, first heart-lung-liver triple transplant in 2000, Tennessee’s first paired kidney exchange in 2004 and first combined heart-kidney in 2008.
Recent accomplishments include the first pediatric heart-kidney transplant in 2016 and first heart-liver in 2017.
It takes a highly specialized, multidisciplinary team of about 150 people to work on a single transplant. The transplant teams include physicians in each organ specialty, surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists, intensivists, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, financial coordinators, nutritionists, organ procurement coordinators, preservationists and operating room staff, among others.