Each year the Division of Transplant Anesthesia assists with more than 100 liver transplants and hundreds of other abdominal organ transplants, including kidney and pancreas transplantation. We provide anesthetic care for liver transplant recipients and donors, and both anesthetic and perioperative care for abdominal organ transplant recipients and organ donors. Our board-certified anesthesiologists possess the diverse multidisciplinary training and experience needed to understand the complex physiology of end-stage organ failure, liver disease and the intricacies of liver transplant and abdominal transplant surgeries. In addition to being fellowship trained in transplant anesthesiology, many members of the division are also formally trained and board certified in additional anesthesia subspecialties and other medical specialties such as cardiovascular anesthesia, critical care anesthesia, internal medicine and transfusion medicine.
Our tradition of close collaboration with transplant surgeons and other members of the UW Transplant Program is considered the model for liver transplant centers by the American Association of Anesthesiology and United Network of Organ Sharing. Our division co-leaders take an active role in the selection and preoperative evaluation of transplant recipients, particularly liver recipients. We frequently collaborate with transplant surgeons and other specialists —in cardiology or pulmonary disciplines, for example— to plan multidisciplinary care and create guidelines for the pre- and post-operative care of particularly complex patients.
We ensure all anesthesia residents are instructed not only on intra-operative anesthetic management, but also on end-stage organ failure and physiology, the process of organ resource allocation and the evaluation of potential transplant candidates.
Our one-year transplant anesthesia fellowship is designed to train our fellows to become experts in the specialty of transplant anesthesia and to become local and national leaders in the field.
DIVISION HIGHLIGHT
Dr. Molly Groose studies the effects of vitamin C on biochemical and cellular damage in liver transplant recipients in order to optimize graft outcomes. Her randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial titled “Parenteral Ascorbic Acid Repletion in Transplantation (PARTI)” aims to determine the clinical response to parenteral vitamin C supplementation in patients undergoing liver transplantation. Because recipient need is so much greater than donor availability, improving recipient outcomes and maximizing graft survival is critically important.
Dr. Laura Hammel is a member of the American Society of Transplantations Liver and Intestinal Community of Practice’s Educational Subcommittee, and also serves on the Committee for Conflict of Interest for the American Society of Transplantation.
