NEW YORK — NYU Langone Health’s Transplant Institute teams performed 600 organ transplants last year, exceeding any single transplant center in the Northeast. Additionally, data released by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients in January 2023 showed that survival exceeded national benchmarks. Transplant patients on the waiting list received hearts and lungs at a faster rate than any other center in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut with top-quality outcomes. The heart transplant program maintained a 100 percent 1-year survival rate and lung survival rates were the best across Northeast centers.
“Our transplant teams care for patients in need while ensuring every organ is a healthy, suitable match that will help people live longer and improve their quality of life,” said Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, the H. Leon Pachter, M.D. Professor of Surgery, chair of NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery, and director of the Transplant Institute.
NYU Langone set a new milestone for the most kidney transplants in New York, with 335 in a single year. The Transplant Institute also demonstrated progressive growth by setting volume records across multiple organ groups. In 2022, 100 livers, 81 lungs, and 73 hearts were transplanted. This represents increased transplant volume growth of 85 percent, 131 percent, and 204 percent, respectively, since 2018.
“Since our heart and lung transplantation programs launched, we have focused on building the best team in the nation to cut down on wait times and find ways to transplant even the most-difficult matches,” said Nader Moazami, MD, chief of the Division of Heart and Lung Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support in NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Among the innovations contributing to this growth, the Transplant Institute has developed protocols that enable transplants to patients who are highly sensitized or difficult to match due to harmful antibody levels or blood types. NYU Langone has a robust living donor transplant program for both kidney and liver, as well as a paired kidney transplant program to match multiple donors and recipients. NYU Langone’s donor recovery program, now entering its third year, is the only one of its kind in the New York region, contributing important infrastructure and management for high-quality donor care and organ procurement throughout the city and state.
The Transplant Institute is also conducting groundbreaking scientific research in xenotransplantation, developing a source of genetically engineered organs that could one day create an unlimited supply of organs. In 2022, NYU Langone formed the Center for Surgical and Transplant Applied Research to further the institution’s knowledge in transplantation and work across the health system to bridge gaps between active clinical practice and scientific research.
