The Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) performed 960 solid organ transplants in 2025, the most ever completed by a single center in one year in the United States.
Through dramatic growth, the VTC is now the nation’s largest transplant center by volume, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing. The VTC saved 85 additional critically ill patients in calendar year 2025 than in 2024.
“These results were made possible through the generosity of our organ donors and their families, and by hundreds of dedicated physicians, nurses and staff who are deeply committed to giving their patients a second chance at life. I want to congratulate our transplant teams for their incredible accomplishments,” said Jane Freedman, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for Vanderbilt Health.
VTC’s heart transplant team also set a new world record in 2025 for the second year in a row, performing 210 adult and pediatric heart transplants. The lung transplant program set a VTC record last year with 149 adult transplants, making it the No. 2 program in the U.S.
None of this would have been possible without the selfless acts of organ donors, from friends and family members who donated live kidneys and partial livers, to deceased donors of hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreases, who in their last acts gave most personal gifts. “The generosity of each donor and the commitment of the teams simply cannot be overstated,” said Seth Karp, MD, chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences and H. William Scott Jr. Professor of Surgery.
“I am incredibly proud and continually awed by our talented teams, not only for the sheer volume of lifesaving transplants, but that each patient is treated with the most cutting-edge and compassionate care,” said Joseph Magliocca, MD, director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, professor of Surgery and Pediatrics, surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program, and holder of the Cindy and Dave Baier Directorship.
In the adult transplant program, teams performed 368 kidney transplants (11 of which were combined kidney-pancreas transplants), 193 heart transplants (three of which were combined heart-lung transplants), 183 liver transplants and 149 lung transplants.
Pediatric transplant teams with Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt performed 18 liver transplants, 17 heart transplants and 17 kidney transplants. Vanderbilt also performed its first pediatric pancreas transplant in 2025.
“It is a tremendous achievement by our teams and a privilege to honor the legacy of donors through the gift of life to so many of our recipients,” said Heidi Schaefer, MD, professor of Medicine and medical director of Adult Solid Organ Transplant.
VTC experts say these factors helped drive the growth:
- Use of novel technologies to preserve organs over longer distances, which allows teams to travel farther to retrieve organs. Traditionally, recovered organs were placed on ice, but new methods allow for a much longer time to preserve organs before transplant. This includes warm and cold blood infusion technologies and a novel cooler that keeps organs at a super-cold temperature.
- The organ recovery team’s ability to mobilize and travel throughout the country to retrieve organs.
- The use of organs that other centers turn down, but Vanderbilt Health can use with excellent outcomes.
“This milestone is a direct result of the passion and dedication of our transplant teams, whose commitment to patients and to one another continues to set the standard for excellence in transplant care,” said Kristin Smith, MSN, RN, associate nursing officer for the Vanderbilt Transplant Center and Vanderbilt Lung Institute.
Vanderbilt Health has now transplanted approximately 14,000 organs since its first kidney transplant in 1962.
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, perfusionists, and operating room staff, among others.
“This extraordinary accomplishment is a testament to the dedication, talent and collaboration of every member of our transplant teams and others across the organization,” said Heather O’Dell, MSN, ANP-BC, MMHC, executive director and associate operating officer for the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. “As remarkable as this milestone is, the true measure of success lies in the lives touched — the patients who now have more time with their loved ones because of the work these teams do.”
