UW KIDNEY TRANSPLANT PROGRAM GAINS #1 RANKING IN U.S., #2 ABROAD

MADISON – For 25 years, the UW Kidney Transplant Program at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics has been recognized as among the best in the United States. Now, it’s been named a leader in the world.

Newly released statistics for 2002 rank the program as the number one kidney transplant program in the United States based on the number of kidney transplants performed. Equally impressive, the UW program was rated the number two kidney transplant program worldwide, second only to the Sao Paulo, Brazil transplant program.
For simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplantation, the UW program again earned the top spot in both the United States and the world. These numbers are based on number of transplants performed in calendar year 2002.

UW performed 341 kidney transplants in 2002 (199 cadaver donor, 142 live donor), for a total of 5,531 kidney transplants since the program’s inception. UW performed 53 SPK transplants in 2002, for a total of 777.

The 2002 transplant statistics were compiled by Clinical Transplants 2002, and released at the American Transplant Congress held in Washington D.C., this last week. The worldwide transplant center directory is its 18th annual summary of the status of clinical transplantation and is published by the UCLA Immunogenetics Center in Los Angeles, Ca. Directory statistics also include analysis of liver, heart, lung, intestine and stem cell transplantation.

The number two ranking for kidney transplants performed in 2002 went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham with 329 and the University of California at San Francisco ranked third with 319 kidney transplants.

The UW program has always welcomed the most challenging patients, including infants, patients with diabetes, elderly patients, patients qualifying for stem cell transplantation and patients with graft failure from other transplant institutions. Though the UW program is consistently a leader with respect to patient outcomes, this ranking clearly indicates the UW’s leadership role in transplantation.

“We are very proud of these rankings and attribute our success to the great team we have at UW Hospital,” says Hans Sollinger, MD, PhD., Folkert O. Belzer professor of surgery and chair of organ transplantation at UW Hospital. “We have continually increased our efforts to improve the quality of care to our patients and those efforts have resulted in our increased volume of transplants.”

Sollinger credits a larger and highly skilled transplant team as a major factor in the top ranking. To keep up with the increasing patient volume, the UW team has grown in the last five years to include: three new transplant surgeons; three new medicine specialists (in hepatology and nephrology); and 12 additional transplant professionals, including physician assistants, transplant coordinators and organ procurement specialists. Sollinger also cites the UW’s shorter waiting time for kidneys as a factor in the increasing number of patients seeking transplants at UW Hospital.

During the last five years alone, UW transplant patients and staff have achieved several milestones, including:

• UW transplant team performed 6,000th organ transplant (1998)
  
• First adult-to-adult living related liver transplant performed (1999)
  
• Organ Procurement Organization at UW Hospital ranked second in the U.S. The transplantation program ranked second largest in the U.S. (2000)
  
• UW transplant team performed first islet cell transplant in the state of Wisconsin (2003)
  
• 8,000 total transplants performed; 500th heart transplant performed (2003)
  
  

Administration - Maps - Affiliated Hospitals - Med Student Information - UW Home

Transplantation - University of Wisconsin Department of Surgery
First published: 07/15/02 Last updated: 08/19/08 webmaster@surgery.wisc.edu
Copyright © 2006 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System