Program Reaches 100 During Countdown to 50

Just days before reaching the 50th anniversary of the first kidney transplant at UC Medical Center, Shimul A. Shah, MD, performed the 100th kidney transplant this year. Shah currently acts as Section Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation in the UC Department of Surgery and the James and Catherine Orr Endowed Chair of Liver Transplantation at the UC College of Medicine.

For the UC Health Transplant Program, this will be the first time 100 kidney transplants have been performed in one year. To put that into perspective, this program performs nearly double the number of kidney transplants each year as it did a decade ago.

“The 100th kidney transplant in 2017, the first time we have ever reached this threshold at UC Health, is a testament of hard work by all our surgeons, physicians, nurses, social workers, and comprehensive multidisciplinary team. We should all be proud of this accomplishment as it represents a total team effort one patient at a time,” said Shah.

The UC Health Kidney Transplant Program has a long history of innovation: UC Medical Center was one of the first centers in the U.S. to perform all living donor kidney surgeries laparoscopically, resulting in faster recoveries and less pain for living kidney donors.

UC Health transplant surgeons have led the development of kidney exchange programs both locally and nationally, helping expand access to living kidney donation, which provides the best outcomes and the longest survival rates.

“This is an important milestone for our transplant programs, but most importantly, it means more patients have better lives and longer life expectancies,” said E. Steve Woodle, MD, Director of Solid Organ Transplantation at UC Health and the William A. Altemeier Chair in Surgery at the UC College of Medicine.

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Now We Join in Celebration

As we celebrate 50 years of providing excellence in transplantation, breakthrough treatments and compassionate coordination of care to the region, we invite you to join us in a 50-day countdown to the anniversary of the first surgery that launched Cincinnati’s most comprehensive transplant program.

Celebrate with us by sharing our stories of transplantation with your social media network using #UCHealthTransplant via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

For more information about UC Health transplant services, please visit uchealth.com/transplant.