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By Jo Gellerman, AHSC Office of Public Affairs
December 1, 2008

Transplant surgeons at The University of Arizona reached a milestone on Nov. 12 when they performed the 100th abdominal transplant of 2008 at University Medical Center. This is the largest number of kidney, liver and pancreas transplants ever done in a single year at UMC.  Last year, surgeons at the hospital performed 62 abdominal transplants, and 49 in 2006.

For Dale Charnick, whose living-donor kidney transplant was the 100th procedure, it was a gift of life.  The retired 64-year-old's new organ was donated by her 35-year-old hairdresser, Elizabeth Littlefield.  Both women are from the Tucson area.

The rise in transplants occurred in part because "of the commitments of the departments of surgery and medicine, and The University of Arizona College of Medicine and University Medical Center to develop and support an efficient and successful transplant team," said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, chief of abdominal transplant and chairman of the UA department of surgery.

In addition, new approaches for increasing living-donor kidney transplants and using extended criteria for organs from deceased donors are expanding the pool of available organs. Moreover, the new team also is focused on increasing the number of transplants for extrarenal abdominal organs, specifically the liver and pancreas. "As the waiting list continues to grow for people needing organ transplantation, these approaches are saving lives," Gruessner said.

Dr. Gruessner performed Charnick's transplant surgery and Dr. Michael Nguyen, UA assistant professor of surgery,  performed the laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, the minimally invasive kidney removal, on Littlefield. The complex procedures went smoothly, and while Charnick still is recovering in the hospital, Littlefield was discharged the following day.

Charnick's family members were unable to donate because she had preformed antibodies against their antigens, a condition that could increase the likelihood of rejection. Littlefield then stepped forward to help.  Remarkably, her blood-type was a match.  

"The chance of her becoming a match was extremely low," said Charnick. "Elizabeth is truly a hero."  

The 100-transplant milestone firmly establishes that the UMC Abdominal Transplant Program is on its way to becoming one of the nation's busiest. To date, 70 kidney transplants, 20 liver transplants and 13 pancreas transplants have been performed since January.  

Members of the surgical abdominal transplant team include Drs. Gruessner, John Renz and John Hughes. The medical team includes Drs. Bruce Kaplan, Thomas Boyer and Khalid Khan.

Current initiatives at UMC include starting an islet cell transplant program and an intestine transplant program in 2009.