UCSF Medical Center is one of the nation's top 10 hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report. It is recognized throughout the world as a leader in medicine, known for compassionate and innovative care. With the resources of an academic medical center, UCSF provides special services that often aren't available elsewhere in the community. Doctors not only have access to the latest technologies, they are often the doctors who develop them.
Kidney Transplant Service
The Kidney Transplant Service provides full transplantation services to pediatric and adult patients with renal disease who may have potential need of, or who have had, an organ transplant. The Transplant Service also provides Consultation and care for patients with hypertension, anatomical renal abnormalities (especially solitary kidneys) requiring surgical in vivo or ex vivo reconstruction, bilateral renal tumors, and other renal problems. There is extensive expertise in intraoperative preservation of kidneys for reconstructive procedures. The service combines a multidisciplinary approach to all aspects of medical and surgical renal disease with full-time nephrology, surgery, urology, pediatric, and immunology participation. Referrals for pancreas transplantation are coordinated through the Kidney Transplant Service.
Liver Transplant Service
Liver transplantation is increasingly recognized as optimal therapy for a number of causes of end-stage liver disease. Indications for liver transplant in pediatric patients include, among others, bilary atresia, chronic active hepatitis, neonatal hepatitis, and inborn errors of metabolism (such as alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency). Some of the indications in adult patients include chronic active hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, sclerosing cholangitis, and Wilson's disease.
Multidisciplinary Team
Each patient is evaluated individually to determine if he or she is an appropriate candidate for transplantation. This includes evaluation of other organ systems, as well as assurance that the anatomical conditions necessary for transplantation are met. The care of the transplant recipient is handled by a multidisciplinary team, including transplantation surgeons, gastroenterologists, experts in infectious disease, nephrologists, cardiologists, and staff from nursing, psychiatry, and anesthesiology. This team approach assures that the patient receives optimal therapy during this highly complex procedure and during postoperative management.