Expertise to Provide the Very Best in Patient Care
Since our transplant program first began in 1967, the Comprehensive Transplant Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has become a world leader in lifesaving care and transplant research, providing heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas and kidney-pancreas transplants.
- Our team of specialty-trained transplant experts includes disease specialists, transplant surgeons, infectious disease physicians, transplant coordinators, advanced practice providers, social workers, psychiatrists and transplant pharmacists — all working together to provide high-quality, personalized care.
- Our time to transplant is above regional median wait times for all organs.
- As an academic medical center, our physician scientists research ways to improve immune system acceptance of new organs, surgical outcomes and the molecular biology behind organ injury and repair. We currently perform organ perfusion to rehabilitate donated kidneys, lungs, livers and hearts that were once considered unusable as well as transplant hepatitis C-positive kidneys, livers and hearts.
- Our physicians hold leadership positions in national transplant organizations, including the United Network for Organ Sharing and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, working to advance the science, practice and policy of organ transplantation.
- Our researchers are increasing efforts to treat diseases causing organ failure with the development of Total Transplant Care Program (TTCP) – a process to obtain patient-approved biological samples and medical history information to be studied that may change the way we prevent, diagnose and treat organ diseases and perform transplantations in the future.
- Our in-house Organ Recovery Team and Clinical Histocompatibility (tissue typing) Laboratory provide seamless and efficient coordination prior to surgery, providing faster time to transplant for better patient outcomes.
- Each year, approximately 600 people receive the gift of life —an organ transplant — at the Ohio State Comprehensive Transplant Center.
Transplant Firsts at Ohio State
1967
Living donor kidney transplant – Ohio State’s first organ transplant
1983
One of the first centers in the United States to study cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant that revolutionized transplantation
1984
Liver transplant – first in Ohio
1985
Pancreas transplant
1986
Heart transplant
1988
Combined kidney-pancreas transplant
1998
Lung transplant
1999
Double lung transplant
Laparoscopic living kidney donor surgery
2005
Combined heart-double lung transplant
Paired kidney donation
2006
One of very few sites in North America approved to process pancreatic islet cells for transplantation that may cure type 1 diabetes
Fourth institution in the country certified to implant the temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart, which serves as a bridge to transplant
2008
Auto islet cell transplant
2011
Allo islet cell transplant
Six-way kidney transplant – largest living donor kidney transplant chain performed in Ohio to date
2016
Combined lung-kidney transplant – first in Ohio and only 37 performed is United States since 1995
One of only 20 centers nationwide chosen to participate in the NOVEL clinical trial with XVIVO Perfusion System™, potentially doubling the donor pool of lungs for transplantation
2017
Split liver transplant
2018
Living donor liver transplant – one of two locations able to perform in Ohio
One of a select few transplant centers to participate in the normo thermic ex-vivo liver perfusion clinical phase study
Transplant Biorepository established for research
2019
Combined heart-liver transplant
2020
Eight-way kidney transplant – largest single-institution living donor kidney transplant chain performed in Ohio to date
Combined heart-lung transplant
2021
"Heart in a Box" monitoring system
2022
OrganOx® metra® liver perfusion system