Liver transplant program celebrates 25 years

Alisa Attrill Sutton meets Byers Shaw, M.D., at this past weekend’s Transplant Reunion. Sutton’s 1985 transplant marked the UNMC team’s first successful pediatric transplant.

Twenty-five years ago this month, on July 19, 1985, a team of UNMC surgeons led by Byers Shaw, M.D., and R. Patrick Wood, M.D. (now of Houston) performed the city’s first liver transplant.

Fourteen liver transplants were performed that year, launching The Nebraska Medical Center’s liver transplant program, the fourth of its kind in the nation at the time. The following year, there were 55 recipients of liver transplants. In 25 years, more than 2,600 liver transplants have been performed.

The liver transplant program performs about 120 transplants a year, making it easily one of the 10 most active transplant programs of its kind in the nation, said UNMC gastroenterologist Michael Sorrell, M.D.

The medical center also is one of the premier pediatric liver transplant programs in the world and is one of the most experienced transplant centers in performing split-liver, reduced size and auxiliary liver transplants.

The first transplants The first liver transplant recipient, a 54-year-old male, lived 17 years after the operation and died from Alzheimer’s. The team’s first successful child was 3-year-old Alisa Attrill Sutton who received a transplant on Aug. 25, 1985. Now married, she has three children.

“The first transplants were intense because we all wanted the program to be successful,” said Laurie Williams, liver transplant coordinator at The Nebraska Medical Center.

“The first liver transplant patient was so ill that a suggestion was made to Dr. Shaw that maybe the first transplant operation shouldn’t be on such a sick patient,” Williams said. “But, Dr. Shaw’s reaction was, ‘We were here to help people and not worry about statistics.’ That has been the nature of our program – to always strive to do what’s best for our patients and their families.”

Through the years, the liver disease and transplant program has grown into a comprehensive program incorporating such researchers as biochemist Anthony Barak, Ph.D., and Dean Tuma, Ph.D., Dr. Sorrell’s research partner for 30 years; as well as physicians Rowen Zetterman, M.D., dean of the Creighton University School of Medicine; Alan Langnas, DO, director of the liver transplant program; and Timothy McCashland, M.D., medical director of the liver disease program.

“The list of surgeons, physicians and other medical professionals is a great indication as to why we have become nationally and internationally recognized,” Dr. Sorrell said. “We have been fortunate to recruit professionals who viewed the study of liver disease with excitement and fascination.”