UI Hospitals and Clinics has performed liver transplants on adults and children since 1984. Our liver transplant program is among the nation's best, with excellent outcomes and dedicated service to our patients.
The UI Organ Transplant and Hapatobiliary Surgery Center provides comprehensive management of all medical and surgical diseases of the liver and bile ducts. Our staff members care for all patients with diseases that might lead to acute or chronic liver failure who might ultimately require liver transplantation. In addition, we offer expertise in the treatment of benign and malignant liver masses, metastases to the liver, and benign and malignant diseases of the gall bladder and bile ducts.
We are also part of the Iowa Liver Center, a collaboration among the University of Iowa Organ Transplant Center, based in Iowa City; the Iowa Digestive Disease Center (IDDC), based in Clive; and Mercy Medical Center–Des Moines (Mercy), including its affiliated clinics and subsidiaries.
Our team develops the best management approach for each individual patient.
Common indications for a liver transplant:
- Cirrhosis with major complications.
- Acute liver failure.
- Metabolic diseases.
- Liver cancer.
- Bile duct cancer.
- Polycystic liver diseases.
- Cystic fibrosis.
- Development of multiple abnormalities in the blood vessels (Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia).
- Blood clots that block the large veins (Budd-Chiari syndrome).
- Recurrent bacterial infections.
- Acute alcoholic hepatitis.