ATLANTA, GA — Piedmont Transplant Institute, Piedmont Healthcare’s service line that performs abdominal transplants (liver, kidney and pancreas), set an internal record for the non-for-profit organization by transplanting 110 living kidneys in calendar year 2019 – an increase of 37 percent compared to number transplanted in calendar year 2018.
The transplant team credits the hard work of its dedicated team of coordinators and physicians plus a variety of other factors for the increase in living donors:
- Improved education on the advantages and benefits of living donor transplant to kidney transplant candidates.
- Piedmont Transplant’s partnership with the National Kidney Registry for paired kidney exchanges.
- Changes that Piedmont Transplant made to its living donor criteria in 2019 to be more in line with that of other successful transplant programs throughout the country.
“We now consider donors with a BMI up to 35 depending on their age and other health factors,” said Christina Klein, M.D., Piedmont Transplant’s medical director for kidney and pancreas transplantation. “We also accept certain donors with sickle cell trait and evaluate each individual donor for suitability.”
Piedmont ranks in the top 10 percent of the country in abdominal organ transplant volumes and Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, the organization’s flagship hospital, where all of the procedures were performed, ranks among the nation’s busiest non-academic transplant hospitals.
Piedmont Transplant Institute has satellite clinics in Albany, Athens, Columbus, Dalton, Fayetteville, Macon, Marietta and Savannah, providing patients in rural Georgia with access to sub-specialty care. Piedmont now serves communities that represent 70 percent of Georgia’s population.
“The incredibly talented physicians of Piedmont Transplant Institute continue to make great contributions to the patients of our state and beyond by bringing innovative treatments and clinical trials to Georgia that are saving lives,” said Charles L. Brown III, M.D., CEO of Piedmont’s Healthcare’s Physician Enterprise.
Piedmont surgeons transplanted the following number of organs during calendar year 2019:
- 274 kidneys (164 from deceased donors and 110 from living donors)
- 129 livers (122 from deceased donors and 7 from living donors)
- 12 pancreas transplants
Eric Gibney, M.D., and Harrison Pollinger, D.O., who serve as Co-Program Directors of Piedmont Transplant, said organ donation – from both living and deceased donors – is essential to serving patients in need. Piedmont has roughly 1,400 patients on its kidney transplant waiting list.
“Our physicians are passionate about finding new ways to serve our patients and it is reflected in the tremendous increase in volumes we have seen in recent years,” said Dr. Gibney and Dr. Pollinger. “In addition, we could not do the important work that we do without the great contribution made by LifeLink of Georgia, our Organ Procurement Organization.”
Piedmont Transplant continues to maintain outstanding outcomes for kidney transplant outcomes and maintains key expertise in living donation. More than 40 percent of kidneys transplanted at Piedmont come from living donors, a key factor for better long-term outcomes. Since 1986, Piedmont Transplant has been recognized as one of the nation’s most successful transplant programs, performing over 5,000 transplant surgeries for kidney, liver, pancreas and heart recipients.
Piedmont Transplant will move into the Piedmont Atlanta Tower in Phase II of the building’s opening in 2022 (the tower’s first five floors will open in late summer 2020). The tower was made possible in part by a $75 million gift from The Marcus Foundation.