Texas Transplant Center at UTMB

Message from the Director

Organ transplantation at UTMB has a long tradition of excellence. Founded more than 40 years ago, it has been a pioneering force in the field since then:

UTMB's kidney transplantation program (established in 1967 and the first in the Houston/Galveston area) has performed more than 1,500 transplants to date while continuing to achieve excellent results by consistently meeting or exceeding national standards for long-term graft survival.

The pancreas transplant program (established in 1988) continues to grow while forging advances in transplantation applications and research. The pancreas team has performed more than 150 transplants to date and is among the largest and most active in Texas.

The university's heart and lung transplantation program (established in 1993) has ranked in the top 10 percent in the nation for one-year survival rates for heart transplantation.

UTMB's new liver transplantation program specializes in all aspects of liver care, including the latest approaches in immunosuppressive therapy, treatment of hepatitis and cancer and surgical techniques for liver transplantation.

The new hepatobiliary program specializes in the advanced care of liver cancer and pancreatic surgery, including laparoscopic liver resection, tumor ablation, and conventional liver resection for cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients as well as total pancreatectomy with auto-transplantation of insulin producing cells (pancreatic islets).

The surgical and medical subspecialty teams within the Texas Transplant Center not only perform transplants but also provide medical care and services for people with organ failure or other diseases in advanced stages. Our patients also benefit from the work of researchers at UTMB. By applying research discoveries, Texas Transplant Center surgeons offer new hope and increase their patients’ long-term survival prospects.

Regardless of the type of procedure, UTMB's transplant care team works diligently with our patients, their families and referring physicians to provide constant feedback regarding health status. We believe good communication is the key to providing exemplary patient care.

If you know of someone who would benefit from our program or if you simply want more information about our center and its capabilities, we are at your service.

• Our 24/7, toll-free phone number is 877-TX2-CNTR (877-892-2687).
• And, you can reach me via email at: lucicale@utmb.edu.

Each of us in the Texas Transplant Center wishes you and yours the best of health. However, should you ever need us, we are here for you.
 

Luca Cicalese MD, FACS
Professor of Surgery
John Sealy Distinguished Chair in Transplantation Surgery
Director, Texas Transplant Center

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Transplant News and Information

A lung transplant success story

Matthew Keller had a lung transplant at UTMB in 2008. He says his life has totally changed thanks to UTMB. Watch a video of Keller telling what the surgery has meant to him in the UTMB Newsroom or on  YouTube. Click HQ on YouTube for best quality.
  

UTMB performs life-changing cell transplantation

Complications from acute pancreatitis after her gallbladder was removed turned 24-year-old Marissa Garcia’s life into a nightmare. Debilitated by constant pain and nausea, Marissa landed in the hospital for one week every month for two years. Doctors offered medicine but no prospect of a cure. But Garcia’s fighting spirit led her 400 miles from her home in Harlingen to UTMB. There she found hope, and ultimately a cure, in Drs. Taylor Riall and Cristiana Rastellini. The two physicians are the core members of a team offering a complex procedure called auto pancreatic islet transplantation, or PIT. For patients like Garcia, it’s a “miracle.” Read more

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Texas Transplant Center teams with Austin partners to ride out storm  

As Hurricane Ike approached Galveston, see how preparations were made to care for recent transplant recipients at UTMB, in this video news report posted to You Tube by the staff of The Daily Texan. The video, produced and posted this past October, features insights from UTMB and Seton physicians, clinical staff and patients.

[Watch video on You Tube]

 

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Two living donor transplants for one family, 17 years apart

UTMB transplant teams performed two living donor transplants for one family, 17 years apart. Robert Guerra, 22, made the six-hour trip from Brownsville to UTMB to undergo a kidney transplant at the Texas Transplant Center. Guerra’s mother, Carmen, made the same trip nearly 20 years earlier when her daughter, then 13, had her own kidney transplant. 

“I’ve been through this before,” said Carmen. “I wasn’t nervous. I knew my son, like my daughter before him, was in good hands.”

 In the photo from left to right are UTMB nurse Suzanne Couture; Robert Guerra, kidney transplant recipient; and Carmen Guerra, Robert’s mother. Read the complete story and see video on the UTMB Newsroom.

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Texas Transplant Center opens outreach clinic in Beaumont

The Texas Transplant Center at UTMB has opened a Liver Transplant and Hepatobiliary outreach clinic in Beaumont for the management of complex liver disease. Patients will be seen by appointment only.  To schedule an appointment or to make a referral, please call (800) 323-4109.

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Texas Transplant Center Practice Locations

Galveston
UTMB University Hospital Clinics
1005 Harborside Dr.
6th Floor, (409) 747-0799 

Austin
Academic Physicians at Trinity
313 East 12th Street, Suite 100
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone:  (512) 324-9650

Corpus Christi
Bay Area Kidney Disease Physicians
614 Furman Avenue
Corpus Christi, Texas 78404
Phone:  361-882-9278
Fax:  361-882-9279

McAllen
El Milagro Clinic
901 E. Vermont
McAllen, Texas 78503
Main phone line:  956-664-9416
Fax:  956-661-0367

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Texas Transplant Center Houston-Galveston Area Physicians

Adrogue, Horacio 
Transplant - Medicine - pre & post only - Nephrology

Asham, Emad 
Transplant - Surgery - Liver tranplantation, liver tumors, hepatobiliary surgery

Barbagelata, Alejandro 
Transplant - Medicine - pre & post only - Cardiology

Cicalese, Luca 
Transplant - Surgery - Liver/Kidney/Pancreas

Gugliuzza, Kristene 
Transplant - Surgery - Kidney/Pancreas

Koerner, Michael
Transplant - Medicine - pre & post only - Cardiology

Kollar, Andras 
Transplant - Surgery  - Heart/Lung

Lick, Scott 
Transplant - Surgery  - Heart/Lung

Soloway, Roger 
Transplant - Medicine - pre & post only - Gastroenterology

Thomas, Philip 
Transplant - Surgery - Liver/Kidney/Pancreas

Valentine, Vincent 
Transplant - Medicine - pre & post only - Pulmonary

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