Transplant recipient Toshiko Linton, 82, (right) has been enjoying a healthy and active life following kidney transplant surgery in the spring of 2010. Sharing in her gratitude for the gift of life is her physician, Surgical and Program Director, Stefan G. Tullius (left).
The Kidney Transplant Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is recognized as the oldest and one of the largest such programs in New England, and one of the most successful in the country. The Program is part our Division of Renal Medicine, which has been consistently honored by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top kidney programs in the United States. We have built upon this success in kidney transplantation to develop our Pancreas Transplant Program, expanding our ability to treat patients who need a pancreas transplant in combination with a kidney transplant or a pancreas transplant alone.
Expanded surgical techniques, improved desensitization (removing antibodies that can cause rejection), state-of-the art anti-rejection protocols, and cutting-edge approaches to minimally invasive kidney removal characterize our program and are critical factors in its continued success. We complement this medical expertise with passionate, comprehensive, coordinated, and family-centered care that continues from evaluation and surgery to post-transplant care.
The BWH Program began when the world’s first successful human organ transplant, a kidney transplanted from one identical twin to another, was performed here by Joseph Murray, MD, in 1954. Dr. Murray was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1990 to recognize this milestone and the subsequent development of immunosuppressive drugs that made transplantation possible for donors and recipients who are not genetically identical (identical twins).
Since this momentous start, our transplant program has performed over 2,400 kidney transplants and continues to help advance the science of kidney transplant surgery and help more and more patients lead healthy and productive lives. Our recent research has focused on improving donor organ quality, individualizing immunosuppression, treating patients with complex medical and immunological histories, and finding the most appropriate organ for a patient.
We have performed up to 100 kidney transplants during the last several years and continue to deliver outstanding outcomes. This capability is made possible by the combination of our dedicated medical team, all having specialized training in kidney transplantation, and our state-of-the art medical facilities.
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This page was last modified on 3/29/2013