2023: Record Year for Liver Transplants

The past year of 2023 registered a record 24 liver transplants in infants, children and adolescents conducted at Schneider Children's Medical Center. The youngest recipient was a 6-month-old infant, while the oldest was a 16-year-old youth. Liver transplants in children is considered one of the most complex in the field of medicine.

Twelve of the transplants followed donation of a liver lobe from a family member of the recipient, two were performed following altruistic donations, and another ten were performed following donations from cadavers, two of which were donations from the families of fallen soldiers killed in the war in Gaza.

In order to conduct liver transplantations, which are considered highly complex in any event and are even more so when the recipients are small children, special readiness of hospital teams is called for. Teams include pediatric organ transplant surgeons, ultrasound technicians, gastroenterologists, anesthetists, surgical nurses, intensivists and more, all of whom are highly experienced in the field. The liver transplant arena is headed by Dr. Michael Gurevitz, assisted by multidisciplinary professionals both before and after the operation. Post-surgical care is conducted in the Department of Pediatrics C.

Schneider Children's conducts the majority of organ transplants in children in Israel and the only one to perform pediatric liver transplants, and among the few children's hospitals in the world able to perform a series of transplant operations at the same time. Since its inception, Schneider Children's has conducted more than 700 transplants of heart, lung, liver and kidneys in children, at a rate of success on a par with leading medical institutions in the world.