Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Ranked Highest in the US for Liver Transplant Outcomes

The Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC is ranked highest in the United States for pediatric liver transplant outcomes, according to January data released from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR).

The SRTR, which manages and analyzes a wide range of transplant data as a service to the public, noted several achievements for Children’s in 2017. When comparing hazard ratio estimates, Children’s ranks as No. 1 out of 62 pediatric liver transplant centers in the U.S. in one-year overall patient survival as well as one-year overall graft survival.

Of the 29 centers performing pediatric living-donor liver transplants, Children’s hazard ratio estimates also rank first in one-year patient and graft survival, as well as three-year patient and graft survival. Children’s has performed over 135 living-donor liver transplants since 1997, and more than any pediatric transplant center in the last five years nationally.

The hazard ratio provides an estimate on how the results at Children’s compare with what was expected based on modeling the transplant outcomes from all U.S. programs. Based on the characteristics of patients transplanted at Children’s from July 2013 through December 2015, SRTR hazard ratio results indicate a 59 percent estimated lower risk of patient mortality and a 76 percent estimated lower risk of graft failure when compared to other pediatric liver transplant centers.

“This new data exemplifies the extraordinary talent and skill our surgeons, hepatologists and entire transplant team bring to hopeful patients and families around the world,” said George Mazariegos, MD, chief, pediatric transplantation at Children’s. “Our decades of experience are unparalleled—we have performed more pediatric liver transplants than any other center in the United States while achieving patient survival rates that are consistently among the best.”

Children’s has performed more than 1,700 pediatric liver transplants since the program’s inception in 1981 through December 2016. This includes:

• 70-plus transplants in children and young adults with maple syrup urine disease—more than any other center in the U.S., while achieving 100 percent patient and graft survival.
• 330-plus transplants for children and young adults with metabolic liver disease—more than any other transplant center, including adult facilities.
• 135-plus living-donor liver transplants since 1997. In the last five years of recorded data (2011 to 2016), Children’s has performed more living-donor liver transplants than any other pediatric liver transplant center in the country.
• 18 domino liver transplants—more than any other center in the nation, while achieving 100 percent patient and graft survival.

Children’s also is the first and only pediatric transplant center in the nation to expand the geographic reach of its program through a partnership with the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital in Charlottesville.

For more information about the pediatric liver transplant program at the Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation at Children’s, please visit www.chp.edu/livertransplant.