MDNews - San Antonio

COVER FEATURE for transplantation — that developed new guidelines on how to distribute donor livers more fairly. Those guidelines were approved last year and will send more donor livers to sicker patients across the country. Jose Almeda, M.D., Director of Pediatric Transplant Surgery and assistant professor of surgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio Gregory Abrahamian, M.D., Director of Renal Transplantation and associate professor of surgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio University Transplant Center surgeons perform a transplant. 8 | San Antonio MD NEWS I MDNEWS.COM Living-Donor Transplants One option for offering more patients a transplant is through the living-donor program. University Transplant Center is one of only two active living-donor liver transplant programs in Texas. Livers are unique for their ability to regenerate in the body after being split into two, making such transplants possible. It is also possible to transplant a single liver into two patients when the donor is deceased. Dr. Halff, along with Francisco Cigarroa, M.D. — now Chancellor of the University of Texas System — performed the region's first split-liver transplant in 1997. The team has a long-standing collaboration with Texas Children's Hospital in Houston to share livers between adult and pediatric patients in such cases. And Dr. Cigarroa still returns monthly from his duties in Austin to University Hospital to put on surgical scrubs and perform liver transplants. The program also has extended its reach throughout south, central and west Texas — with local faculty operating clinics in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Austin and elsewhere. The Rio Grande Valley is an area of particular interest because its population — similar to that of San Antonio — has an even greater burden of liver disease, says Jose Almeda, M.D., assistant professor of surgery at UT Health Science Center, who travels there twice a month to see patients. "The Rio Grande Valley has a population of 1.6 million," Dr. Almeda says. "That's close to what we have around here, yet they don't have physicians who can provide the services we do. To me, that is the definition of outreach." Options Beyond Surgery Dr. Halff says he is hopeful that new medications in the pipeline for hepatitis C — the most common reason for liver transplants — may eventually reduce the need for liver transplantation. The University Transplant Center collaborates with other researchers to investigate the diseases that lead to liver failure. One of their projects is to examine the center's liver tissue bank — containing more than 1,000 samples from transplant patients — to study why those livers failed in the first place. "As academic physicians and surgeons, it's very appealing to us to try and move this treatment forward," Dr. Halff says. Still, Lori Saathoff, R.N, a nurse and veteran patient coordinator with the liver program, says that in the end, it's the people, more than the technology and research, that make the difference. "I always tell patients, I'm sorry you were referred to us — but I'm so glad you were referred to us," Saathoff says, "because we have the most expert physicians and support team." Wissen, enjoying her second chance at life, agrees. "I am so blessed I went to University Hospital," she says. For more information about the liver transplantation program at University Tr a n s p l a n t C e n t e r, p l e a s e v i s i t www.universitytransplantcenter.com or call (210) 567-5777. I

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