During a pandemic year, we performed a record-breaking 116 liver transplants

In 2021, M Health Fairview staff worked tirelessly through the pandemic to perform 116 liver transplants – a new annual record for our health system.

“This is a 50 percent increase from the number of liver transplants we performed in 2020,” said M Health Fairview Hepatologist Julie Thompson, MD, MPH. Thompson serves as medical director of liver transplantation, and is also a faculty member at University of Minnesota Medical School.

Ten of the 116 liver transplants were done for pediatric patients, and the youngest recipient was just four weeks old.

The uptick in 2021 is due in part to an increase in donor organ availability, but it also reflects improving transplant technologies and ever-advancing medical capabilities that allow surgeons and care teams to match a wider range of donor organs to recipients, according to Thompson and other M Health Fairview transplant experts. Finally, the new record is a testament to the expertise of our dedicated surgeons, transplant physicians, transplant care coordinators, and other M Health Fairview staff.

M Health Fairview is one of the oldest and largest transplant centers in the world, with more than 50 years of experience conducting more than 12,000 organ and stem cell transplants. Our doctors and care teams perform dozens of successful liver transplants every year, and our previous record was 88 liver transplants in 2019. To date, the patients that we transplanted in 2021 have a 98 percent survival rate. The average one-year survival rate for liver transplant patients nationwide is just over 90 percent.

Because of that expertise, M Health Fairview care teams are able to accept donor organs from older patients or those with certain pre-existing conditions and find good matches thanks to leading-edge surgical knowledge and skill.

“There’s no perfect organ. The question is, ‘Is this organ right for this recipient?’,” said Thompson. “Being able to utilize a wide range of organs for our patients and have the outcomes that we have requires a high level of expertise and judgment.”

“We have one of the highest success rates in the country,” said M Health Fairview Transplant Surgeon Srinath Chinnakotla, MD. Chinnakotla serves as surgical director of liver transplantation and is a faculty member at University of Minnesota Medical School. “We have an academic medical center and a multidisciplinary team with the expertise to match the best possible liver for each patient.”

“We’ve also been able to increase the number of organs we accept by travelling more,” said Chinnakotla. “We travel all the time around the Midwest, and we’re beginning to fly even further to transport organs back to our hospital.”

The pandemic strained hospital capacity across Minnesota, as healthcare workers cared for critically ill COVID-19 patients. It also caused a shortage of blood donations, which are often used to support transplant patients.

M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center is one of only two centers in Minnesota that conducts liver transplants. Throughout all of this, our team continued to expand its capabilities and keep pace with growing organ availability – all while following strict COVID-19 protocols.

“We can’t mess around, especially because our transplant recipients have weakened immune systems,” said Thompson. “In the worst of circumstances, our team has tirelessly worked to get patients transplanted. They’ve adapted, shifted, and made it happen. How hard these teams have worked can’t be underestimated. It’s really humbling.”

It’s important for people with end-stage liver disease to get on the transplant waiting list as soon as possible – and our team is here to support them along the way and discuss their options for transplant.

“Our doors are wide open. We want to see everybody,” said Thompson. “We want to get patients in to see us as soon as possible so we can help get them to transplant.”

And our care teams are already looking forward to breaking last year’s liver transplant record.

“We want to take a moment to celebrate and thank our teams,” said Chinnakotla. “Now, we have to get back to working towards a new record.”