Shiraz University of Medical Sciences at the Pinnacle of the World: The Most Recent Results
from Twenty-Five Years of Experience in Liver Transplant Reveal
The Vice-Chancellor for the Ministry of Health and Education, Dr. Malekzadeh: The first successful liver transplant was operated in 1967 in the USA. Twenty years after the date, in 1993, the organ transplant team of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) performed the first liver transplant under the supervision of Dr. Ali Malek Hosseini. Since then, the University has continued its notoriety in organ transplant making SUMS the main hub of liver transplant in the Middle East. He goes on to add that at the present moment, Iran is among the 10 pioneering countries and the first in the region with scientific knowledge of liver transplant from deceased donors.
Dr. Malekzadeh, further, draws attention on the most recent studies conducted on “liver transplant in Iran” and states that during the last 25 years, 6301 liver transplants were performed in the country where 5819 organs were obtained from deceased donors and 482 from close living relatives. Iran’s profuse number of liver transplant operations from deceased donors have hit a global record, Dr. Malek Hosseini claims. He also maintains, 4871 out of the total number of the transplants have been performed in Shiraz. Dr. Malek Hosseini declares that among the 9 active liver transplant centers in Iran only SUMS’ center, performing 482 operations of liver transplant from living donors, features the practical knowledge of such a demanding professional procedure.
As Dr. Malek Hosseini remarks, this year, SUMS’ organ transplant center has hit the Pittsburg Transplant Center’s last global record in liver transplant from deceased donors and famed itself as the first in the world. Pittsburg Transplant Center has previously recorded 561 liver transplant operations for a year while SUMS annual number regarding the issue is 638 for 2018, he clarifies. Finally, Dr. Malek Hosseini, the father of Iran’s liver transplant, concludes, “not only does SUMS keep on its success in liver transplant, but also it has been continuously honoring considerable achievements in other organ transplant operations; for instance, 4469 kidneys, 64 pancreases, and 33 intestines have been successfully transplanted; besides, 154 kidney-pancreas and 21 other combined abdominal organ transplants have been performed until now”.