UMC Lecture Series Spotlights Advances in Organ Transplantation
March 19, 2009
Khalid Khan, MBChB, MRCP, a renowned gastroenterologist specializing in intestinal transplantation, will present “Innovations in Liver and Intestine Transplantation in Infants,” Friday, March 20, 4-6 p.m. in DuVal Auditorium, University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell Ave., Tucson. The lecture, from 4-5 p.m., will be followed by a reception with refreshments from 5-6 p.m.
University Medical Center soon will be the first hospital in Arizona to offer life-saving intestinal and combined intestinal and liver transplants to children and adults with irreversible small-bowl failure.
Results from intestinal transplantation and combined liver and intestine transplants have improved dramatically since the first procedure was performed at the University of Minnesota in 1966, Dr. Khan says. “At first there was a high complication rate from rejection, but advancements in surgical techniques and immunosuppressant medications have made it a safer, viable option.”
Small-bowel transplantation is performed to restore intestinal function when the intestine has failed due to illness or trauma and intravenous feeding no longer is successful -- or the patient’s quality of life is extremely poor, Dr. Khan explains.
Nationally, approximately 200-400 patients are likely to be listed for a small-bowel transplant in any given year, but few medical centers offer the procedure. The large majority of small-bowel transplants are performed on infants and children; two-thirds of children who are candidates for an intestinal transplant also have liver damage that requires transplantation of the liver. The UMC team will offer this combined transplantation.
Dr. Khan is associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at The University of Arizona Department of Surgery and director of the Pediatric Liver and Intestinal Transplantation Program.
The lecture is the first in a new Transplant Lecture Series, “The Next Generation in Organ Transplantation,” sponsored by University Medical Center. The series provides an opportunity to showcase the latest developments in organ transplantation at UMC.
For more information, contact Jo Marie Gellermtan at jgellerm@email.arizona.edu or (520) 626-7219. For information on future lectures, visit http://www.pvinc.net/UMCseries/email_03.htm