The Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) established a new record in 2024 for solid organ transplants, performing a total of 875 lifesaving procedures among its adult and pediatric organ transplant programs.
Through dramatic growth, the VTC is now the nation’s third busiest transplant center by volume, saving 136 more critically ill patients in calendar year 2024 than in 2023.
Other records were set in the comprehensive adult and pediatric kidney transplant program (374 kidneys and five kidney-pancreas procedures), the comprehensive adult and pediatric liver transplant program (208 livers), the lung transplant program (99 lungs, including two heart-lung procedures), and a world record for the combined adult and pediatric heart transplant program (174, including two heart-lung procedures). Ten of the heart procedures were pediatric transplants.
The pediatric kidney program set a new record in 2024 with 17 procedures, and the pediatric liver program performed a record 22 procedures.
“Year after year, the Vanderbilt Transplant Center is able to perform record numbers of transplants and give new life to those on the waiting list,” said Heidi Schaefer, MD, professor of Medicine and medical director of Adult Solid Organ Transplant. “The dedication and teamwork that is exhibited by the multiple service lines involved to make this happen is truly remarkable. Our record of expertise and excellence allows us to provide the highest quality of care to our patients, and I am so proud to be part of this team.”
Vanderbilt Transplant Center experts say these factors helped drive the growth:
- Use of novel technologies to preserve organs over longer distances, which allow teams to travel farther to retrieve organs. Traditionally, recovered organs were placed on ice, but new methods allow for a much longer time to preserve organs before transplant. This includes warm and cold blood infusion technologies and a new cooler that keeps organs at a super-cold temperature.
- The organ recovery team’s ability to mobilize and travel throughout the country to retrieve organs.
- The use of hearts from donation after circulatory death (DCD), which not all centers can use. Vanderbilt can use organs that other centers turn down. Vanderbilt research shows that patients who receive DCD hearts have outcomes similar to those who receive traditional donation after brain death (DBD) organs.
Vanderbilt Health has now transplanted approximately 13,000 organs since its first kidney transplant in 1962.
It takes a highly specialized, multidisciplinary team of about 150 people to work on a single transplant. The transplant teams include physicians in each organ specialty, surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists, intensivists, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, financial coordinators, nutritionists, organ procurement coordinators, preservationists, perfusionists, and operating room staff, among others.
VTC Director Joseph Magliocca, MD, said, “This milestone is really a testament to our commitment to the mission and vision of the Transplant Center, which is ‘to provide end-stage organ failure patients an opportunity to lead an extraordinary life’ by providing ‘the highest quality, multidisciplinary care to the community of patients suffering from end-stage organ disease.’
“This commitment is shared by every member of our tremendous multidisciplinary team to strive for the best possible outcome for every patient,” continued Magliocca, professor of Surgery. “It is so important to recognize that the support for this mission is embedded in the VUMC culture of service to our patients. We continue to develop new and innovative ways to reach more patients by leveraging our existing expertise. This includes the development of new programs including larynx transplantation and pediatric lung and pancreas transplantation. It is our aim to continue to be a leader in the field and a model for the way that transplant care should be delivered,” Magliocca said.
