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Vanderbilt Medicine Magazine

Vanderbilt Medicine

By the Numbers

Posted by on Thursday, March 1, 2018 in Related Content, Winter 2018 .

Over the years the Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) has seen tremendous growth in all of its programs.

  • In 1962, the first cadaveric kidney transplant was performed. As one of the largest and oldest kidney transplant programs in the country, VTC has performed more than 5,600 kidney transplantations since the program’s creation.
  • In 1985, the center performed its first heart transplant. In 2017, the center celebrated transplanting its 1,000th heart.
  • The liver program was created in 1990. One of the largest programs in the Southeast, VUMC has performed more than 2,000 liver transplants.
  • VUMC is home to the second busiest heart transplant program in the country and ranked No. 1 in the Southeast region for volume for its combined adult and pediatric procedures, according to data released by the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network.
  • The adult liver program is ranked fifth in the country in volume.
  • The combined adult-pediatric liver transplant program is tied for sixth in volume.
  • Vanderbilt is credited with the first lung transplant in Tennessee in 1990 and for the Southeast’s first combined heart/lung transplant in 1987.
  • VUMC recently performed its first pediatric dual heart/kidney transplant in 2016. According to United Network for Organ Sharing data, there have been just 41 heart/kidney transplants in children younger than 18 performed in the United States since 1988.
  • In 2017, VTC performed its first adult heart/liver transplant joining a few other centers nationwide.
  • Since its inception, the center has performed more than 9,000 transplants, including: 5,600 kidney or kidney/pancreas; 1,083 heart; 467 lung or heart/lung; and 2,043 liver.