Beaumont Hospital Launches New Liver Transplant Program

Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak became Michigan's third liver transplant center on Aug. 31. A 59-year-old man from Royal Oak was the first patient to receive a liver transplant through Beaumont's new multi-organ transplant program.

Under the leadership of Alan J. Koffron, M.D., director of multi-organ transplantation, Beaumont expanded its 38-year-old kidney transplant program to include liver transplants. Beaumont's 17-member transplant team includes three surgeons, two hepatologists, two transplant nephrologists, transplant nurses, a social worker, a patient financial advisor and administrative staff.

Dr. Koffron, who joined Beaumont two years ago from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, is one of the world's leading innovators in laparoscopic and live-donor liver transplantation. He's the world's most experienced surgeon for minimally invasive live-donor liver retrievals.

Beaumont plans to offer both traditional (deceased-donor) and live-donor liver transplant services, laparoscopic liver surgery and minimally invasive liver donor surgery.

"Our goal is to provide patients with an entire spectrum of personalized care, from medical treatment to organ replacement, from a team with an enormous amount of transplant experience," says Dr. Koffron. "When a patient is diagnosed with life-threatening liver disease, they want answers fast. Our liver specialists, with the help of a nurse navigator, will coordinate their appointments and will follow them through the entire transplant process, including post-transplant care."

Beaumont received initial approval for a liver transplant program in October 2007 from the Michigan Department of Community Health's Certificate of Need Commission. The hospital recruited Dr. Koffron to head up multi-organ transplantation, who in turn recruited a transplant surgeon from Georgetown University Hospital (Vandad Raofi, M.D.) and two liver specialists from the University of Alabama (Mohamad Al Sibae, M.D.) and the University of Arkansas (Wael Refai, M.D.) to get the Beaumont program underway.

Along with liver donor transplants, Beaumont surgeons also perform autologous transplant surgeries for patients with cancerous liver tumors. In an autologous transplant, the patient's liver is removed, the tumor is cut away, and the liver is replaced in the patient.

Liver transplants are unique because the liver is the only organ in the body that can regenerate itself. Surgeons can transplant 50 to 60 percent of a donor liver and it will grow to 70 percent of its size within two weeks.

One in 10 Americans has been affected by liver disease. In 2009, 6,320 liver transplants were performed in the United States, 190 of those in Michigan. Nationwide about 16,000 Americans are waiting for a liver transplant. That total includes 340 Michigan residents.

Beaumont's Surgery department offers the latest technology and minimally invasive surgical techniques provided by highly trained physicians, nurses and technicians. Beaumont, Royal Oak performed 49,815 surgeries in 2009, including 68 kidney transplants, making it one of the highest-volume surgery centers in the country.

Find out more about Beaumont's transplant and surgical expertise by visiting www.beaumonthospitals.com.

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