Months of evaluations and preparation help ensure that recipients will care for the gift of a donated organ.
Haylee was born with a liver disease that her parents were able to manage with care and a special diet throughout her childhood. But when she was 12, things began to get a lot more serious. The night she started coughing up blood was the beginning of a very big journey for such a small child.
• View more videos about Haylee at the INTEGRIS Cancer Channel.
Our extensive experience of liver transplant surgery leads to more positive outcomes:
- 91% one year adult liver transplant survival rate
- 82% one year pediatric liver transplant survival rate
- 84% three year adult liver transplant survival rate
- 76% three year pediatric liver transplant survival rate
- Average length of stay across all transplants of 6 days. 4 days less than the national average
*Transplant survival rates through June 30, 2010
We now offer online organ transplant referral forms.
Potential Liver Transplant Patients
Patients are referred from across the country to the Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute for liver transplants, and are typically evaluated over two or three days. Our tests are designed to assess the patient's need for a liver transplantation and the urgency. The tests include blood tests, imaging tests, evaluation of the heart and lung function along with psycho/social evaluation followed by an extensive interview.
See our full liver transplant referral criteria list.
About 80% of physician-referred patients have been accepted as candidates for a liver transplant, including a number of patients who were turned down elsewhere due to the complexity of their disease, but received a successful liver transplant at our Oklahoma City based transplant center. The program is Medicare certified.
Liver Transplant Recipient Review Committee
Once the evaluation phase is completed, the patient is presented at the Liver Transplant Recipient review committee, which includes specialists in:
- cardiology
- nephrology
- ethics
- neurology
- addictionology
- transplant coordination
- social work
Once a patient has been accepted as a candidate for a liver transplant, his or her waiting time can vary widely depending on blood group, the urgency of the medical condition and the unpredictability of the gift of a suitable liver donor.
The Liver Transplant Operation and Post-Transplant Care
Liver transplants as quick as five to six hours are not infrequent with current improvement in surgical technique and avoidance of veno-venous bypass. The median length of stay in the hospital for a liver transplant is 15 days, with 25 percent of cases being discharged home as early as six to eight days.
A speedy discharge is possible mainly because of a dedicated transplant intensive care unit with a full-time transplant/critical care specialist who manages the patients 24 hours a day, along with a committed team of transplant trained specialists in every transplant-related field of medicine.
Among the Best Transplant Survival Rates in the US
An analysis of the 1997 report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that among the 32 centers (of 99 total centers) that exceeded 60 transplants in the report's most recent two-year interval, Nazhi Zuhdi Transplant Institute in Oklahoma City ranked:
- 4th in the US in actual one-year survival (90 percent)
- 6th in the US in disease-severity-adjusted one-year survival.
Our current one-, two-, three- and five-year transplant survivals are 89 percent, 86 percent, 83 percent and 75 percent.
Liver transplant patients are referred to us from across the US, especially from surrounding states including: Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Missouri, Nebraska and Louisiana.
More Information On Our Liver Transplant Surgery Program