Welcome to the Vanderbilt Pediatric Liver Transplant program. This site is designed to give patients and families a short introduction to liver transplant in general and our program in particular. We hope that you find it educational and easy to use.

The Vanderbilt Pediatric Liver Transplant Program is part of the Transplant Center at Vanderbilt University Hospital where all transplant patients, regardless of age or organ transplanted, are followed.  Our program's team includes physicians from the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and specialty trained surgeons from the Vanderbilt University Hospital.  These doctors and nutritionists are able to diagnose liver disease early, keep children with liver diseases healthy for longer periods of time, and determine when liver transplant is needed. Our team also welcomes families seeking second-opinions, which are important when making decisions about a child's healthcare needs.   

The Pediatric Liver Transplant Program opened in 2007 and comes from a successful and well-established adult liver transplant program that currently transplants 80-90 adult patients each year.  Although for many years, older teens have had liver transplants at Vanderbilt University Hospital, Children's Hospital is now able to provide liver transplants to infants and children from birth to 18 years of age.  We currently follow over 30 pediatric liver transplant and liver-bowel transplant patients from other centers, and have been following transplant recipients since 1994.  We have particular interest in those children with complex liver issues such as biliary atresia, Wilson's disease, Alagille syndrome, primary schlerosing cholangitis, fulminant liver failure, alpha-one antitrypsin, liver tumors, and autoimmune hepatitis, to name a few.  Our program focuses on cadaveric (deceased donor), split liver transplantation, and living donor options.  The program relies heavily on an anti-rejection maintenance program, primarily using the drug tacrolimus, that is steroid free.

Liver transplant in children had been done for over 50 years and is now a standard treatment for children with end stage liver disease.  With the development of new medications and refined surgical techniques, the United Network for Organ Sharing reports survival one year after a liver transplant is between 85-92% based on nationwide statistics collected from 1997 to 2004.   Increasingly better medications with less side effects allow the medical team to keep transplanted organs healthy for decades longer than ever before.

For more information, click on the links in the left margin.