UK Transplant Center performs record number of liver transplants in 2024
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 21, 2025) — The UK HealthCare Transplant Center performed 220 organ transplants in 2024, including a record number of liver transplants. The liver transplant teams performed 78 liver transplants, the most ever performed by any Kentucky medical center in a single year. The UK Transplant Center is in the 35th percentile of transplant centers based on volume.
Additionally, transplant teams performed 116 kidney transplants (with 45 kidneys coming from living donors), 17 heart transplants, nine lung transplants and 78 liver transplants.
“This milestone is a testament to the skill and dedication of our transplant teams,” said Robert Gedaly, M.D., director of the UK Transplant Center. “We don’t look at this as 220 surgical procedures; instead, we helped 220 people get a fresh start and a second chance at life. We want all Kentuckians to know the very best care is always available right here at home.”
As the premier transplant center in Kentucky, UK HealthCare has provided solid organ transplantation services to more than 5,000 patients throughout the region since 1964. As an advanced center, the skilled transplant teams also perform complex combined transplants for double-lung, liver-lung, kidney-pancreas, heart-lung and heart-kidney.
The UK Transplant Center has clinic locations in Lexington, Louisville, Bowling Green and Northern Kentucky, providing pre- and post-surgical care for transplant patients near the communities where they live and work. Transplant teams include physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners and nurse coordinators, pharmacists, nutritionists, social workers and support staff who specialize in caring for transplant patients and guiding them through the transplant process, from the initial consultation through surgery and beyond.
Learn more about organ transplantation and to register to become an organ donor.
UK HealthCare is the hospitals and clinics of the University of Kentucky. But it is so much more. It is more than 10,000 dedicated health care professionals committed to providing advanced subspecialty care for the most critically injured and ill patients from the Commonwealth and beyond. It also is the home of the state’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, a Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that cares for the tiniest and sickest newborns, the region’s only Level 1 trauma center and Kentucky’s top hospital ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
As an academic research institution, we are continuously pursuing the next generation of cures, treatments, protocols and policies. Our discoveries have the potential to change what’s medically possible within our lifetimes. Our educators and thought leaders are transforming the health care landscape as our six health professions colleges teach the next generation of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals, spreading the highest standards of care. UK HealthCare is the power of advanced medicine committed to creating a healthier Kentucky, now and for generations to come.