UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL LIVER TRANSPLANT PROGRAM LED BY RUTGERS NEW JERSEY MEDICAL SCHOOL PHYSICIANS RANKED NO. 1 IN THE COUNTRY

New Jersey’s First Liver Transplant Center is National Leader in One-Year Survival Rate

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) has distinguished the liver transplant program at the University Hospital Center for Advanced Liver Diseases and Transplantation as the national leader in one-year survival rate.  The Center is led by the nationally-recognized physicians at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

With an estimated one-year survival rate of 98.7%, the Center for Advanced Liver Diseases and Transplantation was rated as the top center of its kind in the country. University Hospital shares the top spot with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, which has the same estimated survival rate.

The liver transplant center at University Hospital and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School is the first in New Jersey and one of 61 such centers nationally. Since it opened in 1989, the center has performed more than 1,500 liver transplant surgeries, including over 80 transplants in the last two years alone. The SRTR, operated by the Chronic Disease Research Group, a division of the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, is a federally supported program.

“Being ranked as a top facility by the SRTR affirms that we are one of the top liver transplant programs in the entire nation,” said Dr. Nikolaos Pyrsopoulos, Medical Director of the Liver Transplant Program at University Hospital. “The SRTR ranking broadens our profile and enhances the awareness of University Hospital, and our partners at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, to the larger world.”

“People already know University Hospital as a leading academic medical center and the Level 1 Trauma Center for Northern New Jersey. We are honored by this recognition and pleased to add the liver transplant program as another point of pride for the institution,” said Dr. James V. Guarrera, Chief of Service – Surgery and Program and Surgical Director of Liver Transplantation at University Hospital.

“This designation reinforces our position as one of the outstanding liver transplant centers in the country, and reinforces our role as New Jersey’s public hospital and a northeast healthcare powerhouse,” said Shereef Elnahal, MD, MBA, President and CEO of University Hospital. “Lives are literally being saved because of the Center for Advanced Liver Diseases and Transplantation, the leadership of Drs. Pyrsopoulos and Guarrera, our dedicated team members, and the active support of our partners at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.”