Thomas Jefferson University Hospital - Transplant Surgery News

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Designated Live Donor Liver Transplant Center by UNOS
(Published 4-23-2008) Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has been designated a Live Donor Liver Transplant Center by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the organization that administers the nation's policies on organ transplantation and procurement. The designation makes Jefferson's one of only three adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) programs in the Delaware Valley.

Jefferson Transplant Specialist Cataldo Doria, M.D., Ph.D., Elected to American College of Surgeons
(Published 2-12-2008) Cataldo Doria, M.D, Ph.D., director of the Division of Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and associate professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, has become a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Convocation ceremonies took place at the College’s 93rd annual Clinical Congress, which were held last fall in New Orleans.

Jefferson Specialists Perform High Tech Surgery to Safely Remove up to 75 Percent of Cancerous Livers
(Published 1-15-2008) Transplant surgeons at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia are using a new method called “bloodless” liver resection to safely remove up to 75 percent of the largest organ in the human body. The technique is improving patients’ odds and cutting recovery time in half.

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Jefferson Specialists Perform High Tech Surgery to Safely Remove up to 75 Percent of Cancerous Livers
New surgical tools spare transfusion, cut recovery time in half

(Published 1-10-07) Transplant surgeons at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) are using a new method called “bloodless” liver resection to safely remove up to 75 percent of the largest organ inside the human body. The technique is improving patients’ odds and cutting recovery time in half.

Cataldo Doria, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Transplantation at TJUH, and associate professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College, has performed hundreds of liver procedures. But his two newest surgical tools are making an amazing difference for patients with localized liver cancer and other liver diseases.

Dr. Doria removed 60 percent of patient Beng Lin's liver using the new technique. Lin was up and walking around 24 hours after surgery.

"I guess I consider myself one of the lucky ones," Lin says.

Doctors say he had such a speedy recovery because he lost virtually no blood during the procedure. Instead of using a scalpel to cut the liver tissue, Dr. Doria is now using a new device called a cavitational ultrasonic surgical aspirator, or CUSA, to aspirate or suck out diseased liver cells. Another surgeon follows immediately with a second tool called a TissueLink. Hot, sterile water flows through the tip of this probe and seals the blood vessels upon contact.

Six months after surgery, Lin is cancer-free and feeling better than ever.

Click on the links below for more information on the procedure and new surgical tools being used at Jefferson.

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Media Coverage
Ivanhoe Broadcast News
WPTV-TV (West Palm Beach, FL)
MSNBC.com
USAToday Online
News 8 Austin

In September 2007, Cataldo Doria, MD, PhD, Director of the Division of Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, was the only representative of the United States to speak at the 9th International Symposium on Albumin Dialysis (ISAD). The conference brought the most highly esteemed liver transplant specialists from around the world to Rostock- Warnemunde, Germany to focus on liver support therapies and transplantation.

Dr. Doria lectured on the topic of “Liver support for acute liver failure: indications, contraindications and results” and helped lead a panel discussion about “Liver support studies - What is expected, needed, realistic?” Albumin dialysis is a leading-edge support therapy (similar to kidney dialysis) that is broadening treatment options for patients with liver disease.

Dr. Iaria enroute to procure an organ.

Maurizio Iaria, MD, Clinical Fellow in the Division of Transplant Surgery was awarded the Young Investigator Award at the 2006 World Transplant Congress held in Boston, MA. The award was granted for his abstract, Zero Antigen Mismatched Cadaveric Kidney Grafts in Diabetics Lack the Survival Advantage Seen In Nondiabetics.

Dr. Iaria and Adam Frank, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Transplant Surgery, performed an extensive analysis of the UNOS database of kidney and kidney/pancreas transplants performed between 1992 and 2003 in the United States.The study showed that zero-mismatched grafts have no significant survival advantage in diabetics, especially in Type 1 diabetics. The authors suggest that different allocation strategies should be considered for diabetics rather than obligatory national sharing of zero-mismatched kidneys.

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Advances in medicine: New treatments benefit enlarged prostate
(Published 4-4-06, News Journal) An enlarged prostate is par for the course among men of middle age and older. And for decades, surgical removal of the prostate has been the treatment of choice when the condition starts causing problems with urination.

Medical technologies using microwaves and lasers have been introduced in recent years, allowing for less invasive ways to treat blockage of the urethra caused by the growing prostate.

Enlargement of the prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), occurs in about half of men in their 60s and as many as 90 percent in their 70s and 80s. The enlarged prostate can constrict the urethra, which channels urine from the bladder and out of the body. When this occurs, pressure on the bladder can increase the urge to urinate, even when there's little fluid. Eventually, the bladder can lose its ability to empty itself entirely. The risk for infection also increases without treatment.

Before medications for BPH were introduced in the early 1990s, about 80 percent to 90 percent of enlarged prostates were treated by removing the prostate through transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), said Dr. Leonard Gomella, chair of urology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Now, with medications and noninvasive alternatives, that number has decreased to around 20 percent, he said.

Media Coverage:
News Journal

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Man Gives Stranger Valentine's Gift Of Kidney
(Published 2-14-06, NBC10) A man from Philadelphia wins the prize for giving the most loving gift on Valentine's Day.

Paul Wagner gave one of his kidneys to a total stranger. Wagner just happened to read about Gail Tomas, who needed a kidney, on MatchingDonors.com. The surgery took place on Valentine's Day at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and you can read all about it in stories below on NBC10, 6ABC, MSNBC and in the Philadelphia Daily News.

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NBC10
6ABC
MSNBC
Philadelphia Daily News

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Valentine's Day Organ donation at Jefferson
(Published 2-14-06, Philadelphia Daily News) Is it fair for donors to choose who gets their organs, when thousands of other potential recipients, who might be in more dire need, languish on waiting lists? On the other hand, given their sacrifice, who would deny donors a say in who they save?

I'm thinking specifically of Paul Wagner, 40, who today will donate one of his kidneys to Gail Tomas, 67, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Wagner met Tomas in December through www.matching-donors.com, a nonprofit Web site matching potential organ donors with recipients. Wagner logged on out of curiosity. He found a posting for Tomas, who's been on dialysis for 18 months.

Media Coverage:
Philadelphia Daily News