Programs

Liver Transplantation

Pediatric Liver

The mission of the Pediatric Liver/Liver Transplant Program at The Mount Sinai Hospital is to provide state of the art care for children with liver disease. This mission is being met through clinical and research activities in pediatric hepatology and pediatric liver transplantation. The program continues to undergo significant growth and is recognized as one of the leading centers in the country. Pediatric Liver Transplant volume is the third highest in the United States. Drs. Gonzalo Rodriquez-Laiz and Susan Lerner have joined Drs. Sukru Emre, Benjamin Shneider, Frederick Suchy, Gabriel Gondolesi, Nanda Kerkar, and Carolina Rumbo as new members of the core physician staff for the program. Also, Dr. Eyal Shemesh, who is triple-board certified in pediatrics, psychiatry and pediatric psychiatry, is directing consult liaison services for the program. In addition, there are five clinical nurse coordinators and a social worker dedicated to the Pediatric Liver/Liver Transplant Program. Support groups for pre- and post-transplant patients and their families have been implemented with the help of the Department of Social Work Services and the Maternal and Child Health Care Center.

In 2002-2004, 75 isolated pediatric liver transplants were performed in 71 children. Seventeen of the 39 transplants were living-related donor, including 4 for fulminant hepatic failure. One-year survival rate is 98 percent, second highest in the nation. Five-year survival rate is 92 percent. Outpatient activity of the program includes 1,800 outpatient visits with 150 new consultations. The Hepatobiliary Surgery program continues to grow and includes a wide range of procedures including Kasai hepatoportoenterostomies, tumor resections and a variety of portosystemic shunts. Mount Sinai is actively involved in several NIH funded research studies including, The Biliary Atresia Research Consortium, The Cholestatic Liver Disease Consortium, The Pediatric Acute Liver Failure Study Group, and The Study of Pediatric Liver Transplantation.

A wide spectrum of academic and research activities are conducted in the pediatric liver and liver transplant program. Seminal publications in the past 18 months have appeared in Gastroenterology, Transplantation, Pediatrics, The Journal of Pediatrics, Liver Transplantation, Hepatology, and Pediatric Transplantation stemmed from work in the program.

Important Highlights

Youngest transplant recipient, 17 days old
10 combined liver/kidney transplants
First living related liver/kidney transplant from the same donor for oxalosis
SPLIT liver transplant between two pediatric recipients including in-situ split liver transplantation
22 living related transplants for fulminant failure

Statistics

Number of Pediatric Transplants Performed: 342
- 28 percent living related
- 24 percent split/reduced size
- 48 percent whole
Number of Pediatric Patients Transplanted: 302
- 43 percent biliary atresia
- 14 percent fulminant
- 9 percent cryptogenic cirrhosis
- 7 percent cholestatic liver disease
- 6 percent autoimmune hepatitis
- 6 percent metabolic liver disease
- 3 percent hepatitis b/c
- 3 percent drug toxicity
- 3 percent tumor
- 2 percent neonatal liver failure
- 3 percent miscellaneous
One-Year Patient Survival Rate: 95 percent
Five-Year Patient Survival Rate: 92 percent