UCLA is one of the largest liver transplant centers in the world, performing in excess of 250 liver transplants annually.
Liver transplantation is offered for infants, children and adults.
Approximately 500 patients annually are referred to this center for evaluation of transplantation candidacy from throughout the United States, and internationally. A living related donor program for pediatric patients was inaugurated in 1993 and has matured in this academic year. The living donor program has met with considerable success, with essentially no donor morbidity and results in recipients comparable to cadaveric donor grafts. Due to its advantages in overcoming the organ donor shortage, reducing waiting time and the associated mortality risk, and allowing elective intervention, living donor transplantation is proving to be the preferred treatment for pediatric patients for whom it is an option. A unified program in liver transplantation was established in 1993 between the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California Irvine Medical Center.