Johannesburg – The Wits University Liver Transplant Programme has reached its 1 000th liver transplant, marking a defining milestone for South African medicine.
The Wits University Liver Transplant Programme is one of Africa’s most comprehensive transplant programmes.
A collaboration between Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, the liver transplant programme has become a national and regional referral hub for patients across the healthcare system.
Of the 1 000 liver transplants, 637 were performed in adults and 363 in children.
Since performing its first liver transplant in 2004, the programme has introduced living donor liver transplantation for both adults and children, expanded expertise in split liver transplantation and ABO (blood group)-incompatible transplantation, pioneered HIV-positive donor liver transplantation, performed monosegment liver transplantation and, most recently, introduced liver machine perfusion technology to help maximise the use of scarce donor organs.
The 1 000th transplant milestone demonstrates what is possible when academic medicine, scientific research, education and healthcare partners work together in pursuit of a common purpose, increasing access to healthcare for all.
Professor Jerome Loveland, Academic Head of Transplantation at Wits, says the programme has continually expanded the boundaries of what is possible through clinical innovation, multidisciplinary expertise, research and academic training in a country facing a severe shortage of donor organs.
“People often see the transplant operation as the defining moment.
“In reality, it is the culmination of years of expertise and systems development across highly specialised teams.
“The 1 000th transplants reflect the legacy handed to us by those who built the programme, past and present, the extraordinary multidisciplinary expertise that sustains it today and our responsibility to train the people who will carry it forward.”
While the programme celebrates its 1 000th transplant, it also highlights one of South Africa’s greatest ongoing healthcare challenges.
Many patients continue to wait for life-saving donor organs.
Advances such as living donor transplantation, split liver transplantation and liver machine perfusion are helping to expand access to transplantation, but increasing awareness of organ donation remains essential if more patients are to receive the chance of a longer, healthier life.
