Transplant Programs
Feel confident choosing UC San Diego Health’s lifesaving transplant program.
Our surgeons at the Center for Transplantation have extensive experience in heart, kidney, liver, lung and multi-organ transplants from deceased donors and kidney and liver transplants from living donors. We have performed thousands of successful transplant procedures since 1968, with patient survival rates exceeding the national average.
We provide a full spectrum of care for the entire transplantation process — from pre-transplant evaluation to post-surgical maintenance — with the highest level of transplantation medicine available.
Complete Transplantation Care
You'll receive personalized care from the region’s top transplant surgeons and transplant specialists, who are with you every step of the way.
- A pre-transplant evaluation reviews your overall nutrition, health and psychosocial factors to see if you’re a candidate for transplant surgery.
- Mental health services help provide coping skills and emotional support throughout the organ transplant journey.
- Advanced, research-driven surgical techniques ensure a successful and speedy recovery.
- Post-surgery recovery services help build strength and reduce the likelihood of organ rejection.
- Long-term monitoring and care prevent infection and improve transplant outcomes.
Lifesaving Transplant Procedures
Expect us to help you achieve the best possible outcomes for these surgeries at UC San Diego Health:
- Heart transplant
- Kidney transplant
- Liver transplant
- Lung transplant
- Multi-organ transplant (for example, combined heart and lung transplant)
- Blood and marrow transplant (BMT)
High Survival Rates
Our patient survival rates exceed the national average for all programs, placing us among the nation's best transplant centers by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR).
Consider Becoming an Organ or Tissue Donor
Organ donation is a voluntary act that helps save lives, with strict safeguards in place to protect your health, safety and privacy. Both living and deceased donors can make a difference. Here’s how you can help:
Register to Donate After Death
Sign up to donate your organs, eyes or tissue after you pass. This is a way to give legal consent for organ and tissue donation and help others in need.
Become a Living Kidney Donor
There are several ways to donate a kidney, including directly to someone you know or through a paired exchange or voucher program.
Become a Living Liver Donor
You can donate part of your liver to someone in need. Both your liver and the transplanted piece will grow back to full size.
Transplant Program Team
Receive leading-edge, compassionate transplant care from our multidisciplinary transplant team, which includes surgeons, nurses, transplant coordinators, pharmacists, financial coordinators and nutritionists. We also have social workers and psychologists to provide emotional support and facilitate short- and long-term follow-up.
- Surgeon: Specializes in transplantation and performs the transplant surgery
- Transplant physician: Specializes in the medical care of transplant patients. Includes cardiologists, hepatologists, nephrologists, pulmonologists and other physicians specific to each organ group.
- Nurse coordinator: Arranges appointments, medication refills and your recovery services
- Nutritionist: Helps you meet your nutritional needs before and after transplant surgery
- Pharmacist: Works with your care team to provide safe medication management
- Psychologist: Optimizes your emotional and behavioral health
- Financial coordinator: Assists will all billing needs
- Social worker: Refers you to resources that can help with lodging, transportation, finances, and other support services
Contact Us
Locations
Related Services
Patient Support Program Reunites Childhood Friends
Two patients who hadn’t seen each other for more than 60 years reunite at UC San Diego Health through a support group for heart transplant patients.
Life-Saving Connection: Volunteers Unite Through Kidney Donation
Two volunteers create a unique bond through kidney donation and transplantation.