Liver transplantation historical perspective

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Mohammed Abdelwahed M.D[2]

Liver transplantation historical perspective

• In 1952, Vittorio Staudacher was the first to perform a LT in a large animal model, a canine species[2].
• Two years later, Jack Cannon was credited with the first animal orthotopic LT[2].
• Starzl et al[6] published the first three attempts at human LT, but it was not until 1967 that the procedure resulted in an extended survival. [7]
• Roy Calne, in Cambridge, United Kingdom, joined Roger Williams in London, United Kingdom, in 1968, and reported 5 cases of liver transplant, detailing the technical difficulties encountered[8].

Thomas Starzl

• The introduction of cyclosporine in the late 1970s as part of the immunosuppressive regimen in organ transplantation permitted less toxicity and the prevention of rejection and severe opportunistic infections when compared to azathioprine[11,12].
• In 1984, Bismuth et al[16] (France) reported the first left-lobe LT in a child, and in 1988, Pichlmayr performed the first split-LT in Hannover, Germany[17].
• The following year, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Silvano Raia described the first attempt at a living donor graft in a child[18], with a successful procedure performed by Strong et al[19]
• Since the nineties, the field of LT has witnessed a huge expansion of the number of institutions performing the procedure, and today, there are hundreds of liver transplant centres in over 80 countries.