2,000 Organ Transplants and Counting at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital

More than 2,000 lifesaving organ transplantations have been performed at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital’s Transplant Center since its launch in 2013. Today it is one of the leading institutes for adult heart, liver and kidney transplantation in South Florida.

With a vision to save and restore lives through transplantation, the center’s transplant specialists are helping some of the most critically ill in Florida, the Caribbean and Latin America by providing a full range of care for patients with end-stage organ failure and related diseases.

Liver transplantation is lifesaving for many

Approximately 4.5 million adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with liver disease, leading to an estimated 57,000 deaths a year. In response to a significant uptick in the need for liver transplants, the Transplant Center at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital recently added three specialists who bring experience and expertise in transplant hepatology and gastroenterology: Leopoldo Arosemena, MD; Christopher O’Brien, MD; and Kalyan Ram Bhamidimarri, MD.

“Severe and chronic liver disease, such as cirrhosis, can be reversible with proper treatment,” says Dr. Arosemena. “Our goal is to slow down the buildup of scar tissue and prevent or treat any problems that arise. As a last resort, if the liver is unable to recover, a transplant may be necessary.”

For the first time last year more than 10,000 people received a liver transplant in the United States. Unfortunately, thousands more were added to the national waitlist, highlighting the fact that there are many more people who need liver transplants than donor livers available.

“Patients must meet certain criteria to qualify for a liver transplant,” states Xaralambos Zervos, DO, MBA,Medical Director of the Liver Transplant Program at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital and one of the center’s 15 transplant specialists. “Their journey requires intensive surgery and recovery and the expertise of multiple specialists. Our multidisciplinary teams do everything they can to ensure each candidate will have a successful outcome.”

Hope and help for advanced heart failure

Despite its relatively small size, Weston Hospital’s Transplant Center performs more heart transplants in southern Florida than any other center in the region. The center’s team of heart specialists primarily care for patients who experience disease processes that result in heart failure, providing the latest treatments to support heart function before transplantation. Patients who don’t want or are not eligible for a heart transplant also benefit from this level of complex care.

“Our dedicated heart transplant team manages rare and challenging indications for heart transplantation,” says Cedric Sheffield, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon and Surgical Director of the Heart Transplant Program. “We treat patients other centers turn away due to high-risk factors, offering hope and help for the most complicated diagnoses.”

The heart transplant program’s proven success is evident in its patient outcomes. More than 8 in 10 patients experience a 3-year survival after transplantation. This success rate is especially remarkable given the complex medical needs of the patients treated, notes Dr. Sheffield.

Patients also experience shorter wait times for donor hearts — more than 78% of the program’s patients receive a new heart during the first year on the transplant waitlist. This is 20% faster than the national average wait time.

To improve the chances of a successful outcome, the program’s specialists minimize the time between donation and transplantation. Every potential donor heart is evaluated. When necessary, steps are taken to quickly improve the health of a donor heart before removing the organ for transplantation.

With a strong and consistent focus on quality care, the heart transplant program is rated among the top five centers in the country, according to Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) reports.

Expanded access to donor kidneys

The Transplant Center offers all types of kidney transplants, including complex deceased donor kidney transplants and living donor kidney transplants. It is among a select few medical centers in Florida participating in the national paired exchange program allowing for more patients to receive living donor kidney transplants.

With the expertise to transplant kidneys from living kidney donors and higher-risk deceased donors, patients can get transplanted faster, often while they’re still relatively healthy and have not begun dialysis, notes Neerja Agrawal, MD, Cleveland Clinic Florida Medical Director of the Kidney Transplant Program and Director of the Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program.

“It’s not easy to be a patient with advanced kidney disease,” Dr. Agrawal observes. “We get to know each patient very well as we learn about their medical history and unique situation, and go through the evaluation process. Our patients feel very secure in the care they receive with us.”

Dr. Agrawal and the transplant nephrology team are proud of their graft and patient survival rates that meet and often exceed national kidney transplant averages. “We have a 90% or higher 3-year patient survival rate, depending on the transplant type,” she says.

Whether coming to Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital with advanced liver, heart or kidney disease, patients have access to specialists active in research and clinical trials, and the potential to receive leading-edge therapies not widely available to the public.