Our Achievements Print E-mail

Adult Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant

We have one of the largest programs in the US — over 1,500 blood and marrow stem cell transplants have been performed since it began in 1993.

We are the first in North America accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cell Therapy (FACT) and has remained accredited ever since.

Our program has been certified by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) as a Regional Bone Marrow Collection Center since 1992 and was certified as an NMDP transplant center in 1996.

Our program is part of the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trial Network, an NIH sponsored consortium of stem cell transplant programs participating in multi-institutional trials.

To watch a video highlighting the features of one of the busiest blood and marrow stem cell transplant programs in the United States and celebrating a decade of compassionate care and cutting-edge programs at Texas Transplant Institute**, click here.
 

Pediatric Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant

We have one of the busiest programs in the US — performing 40 to 50 pediatric blood and marrow stem cell transplants every year. More than 200 cord blood transplants have been performed since 2002.

We are the first program in North America to be accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cell Therapy (FACT) and have remained accredited ever since.

Our program is certified by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) as a Regional Bone Marrow Collection Center and was certified as an NMDP transplant center in 1996.

Our program is part of the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trial Network, an NIH sponsored consortium of stem cell transplant programs participating in multi-institutional trials.

To watch a video highlighting the features of one of the busiest pediatric blood and marrow stem cell transplant programs in the United States and celebrating a decade of compassionate care and cutting-edge programs at Texas Transplant Institute**, click here.


Heart Failure and Transplant

We are the largest program in South Texas and have performed more than 300 heart transplants and 100 cardiac assist device implantations to date.

We have the best 1-year patient survival rate (source: www.us.transplant.org) among heart transplant centers in Central and South Texas.

Dr. Michael Kwan and Dr. Chandra Kunavarapu are board certified in Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology--the new subspecialty in cardiology to address the unique needs of patients with advanced heart failure and of those in need of a heart transplant.

We were the first Medicare-Medicaid approved program in South Texas.

We are approved by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

Our comprehensive advanced heart failure disease management clinic optimizes medical therapy prior to determining if cardiac transplantation is indicated.

We are the only approved ventricular assist device destination therapy program in San Antonio.

Current devices available include:

  • HeartMate II®
  • Thoratec iVAD® and Thoratec pVAD®
  • Abiomed BVS 5000®

Cath Lab-inserted devices:

  • TandemHeart®
  • CentriMag®
  • Abiomed Impella®

To watch a video highlighting the features of the Heart Failure and Transplant program and celebrating a decade of compassionate care and cutting-edge programs at Texas Transplant Institute**, click here.


Kidney Transplant

The largest living donor kidney transplant program in the state is at Texas Transplant Institute** where our physicians have performed more than 1,400 live donor kidney transplants to date—making it also one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States. And they've performed more than 3,000 combined live donor and deceased donor transplants.

Our Living Paired Donor Kidney Transplant team made history in November, 2010, with the world's largest paired donor kidney transplant donor chain--with 16 transplants completed over three days. The 17th donor's "bridge" kidney was used to start another chain in December--extending the record-breaking chain to 23--still the largest single center kidney donor chain in the world! The kidney recipients ranged in age from 17 to 69 and all were transplanted with fully matched kidneys without the need for desensitization therapy. Dr. Adam Bingaman, Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgeon and Director of the Live Donor Kidney Transplant Program with Texas Transplant Physician Group extended the chain further in January, 2011.

We are the most experienced transplant center in Texas with minimally-invasive laparoscopic living donor kidney removal surgery.

Texas Transplant Physician Group serves patients in satellite clinics throughout Texas (Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi, Waco) and receives numerous referrals from nearby states--including Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico--even Georgia and Florida.

Learn more: Helping the Hopeless: San Antonio's Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program is Top in the Nation

Incompatible Live Donor Kidney Transplant Program

As the largest living donor transplant program in Texas and the United States for the past two years, we are a national leader in turning "No" into "Yes!" by matching incompatible kidney donor and recipient pairs.

Our innovative program offers comprehensive solutions for kidney transplant patients with incompatible live donors.  

Incompatible pairs are matched with other incompatible pairs, and the donors are exchanged, providing kidney patients with a transplant from a matched donor and second chance at life.

The Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital* team performed the first exchange in March 2008 and has since completed more than 130 paired kidney exchange transplants.

Paired Donation Kidney Transplant Program

As the national leader in paired donation kidney transplantation with more than 130 paired exchanges performed since 2008, Texas Transplant Institute's large in-house database is designed to match incompatible donor/recipient pairs managed by a dedicated team of immunologists, physicians and transplant coordinators.

Click here for an example of a triple donor exchange.

Non-Directed Donor Program

Non-directed kidney donation is a unique way to match living donors with compatible recipients and to increase the availability of matching kidneys for kidney patients in need of a transplant. It takes paired donor kidney exchanges one giant step further.

The Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital*--the largest program of its kind in Texas and one of the largest in the United States—is one of only a select number of kidney transplant programs in the U.S. to offer a Paired Kidney Donor Exchange Program which is ideally positioned to create donor chains thanks to its large database of incompatible donor/recipient pairs.

Our Non-Directed Donor Program made history in late 2010 with a 23-way live donor kidney transplant chain which began with a single non-directed donor--making it the largest  single center donor chain in the world! The chain continued in January, 2011.

Our Living Paired Donor Kidney Transplant team has already performed three separate donor chains to transplant a total of 37 kidney patients with donor and recipients from across the United States including Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Vermont.

  • a 5-way donor chain (now complete)
  • a 23-way donor chain (ongoing)--the largest donor chain in the world
  • a 9-way donor chain (ongoing)

Blood Type Incompatible Program

Positive Crossmatch and Sensitized Patient Program

Desensitization with plasmapheresis and IVIG for sensitized patients

More About Our Program

We have fully bilingual, Spanish-speaking physicians, clinical and support staff.

To read more about our Texas Transplant Institute's paired exchange kidney transplant program--the busiest in the country, click here.

To watch a video featuring paired exchange kidney transplant patients and celebrating Texas Transplant Institute**'s 10th anniversary, click here.

To see our ad in the February 2011 edition of Texas Monthly, click here.

Incompatible Live Kidney Donor Exchange Program Milestones

In 2009 and 2010, Texas Transplant Institute's Incompatible Live Kidney Donor Exchange Program was the largest of its kind in the United States. (UNOS.org). 

  • 130 paired kidney exchange transplants since 2008 make Texas Transplant Institute's program one of the busiest paired exchange kidney transplant programs in the United States.

We were the first in the world to perform:

  • a 23-person live donor kidney transplant chain initiated by a single non-directed donor

We were the first program in Texas to perform:

  • A simultaneous paired kidney exchange (2 recipients/2 donors)
  • A simultaneous three-way paired kidney exchange (3 recipients/3 donors)
     


Pancreas Transplant

Our pancreas transplant program was established in 1995. Since then, we have performed more than 50 pancreas and combination kidney-pancreas transplants.

Our program is approved by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), Medicare and Medicaid.

Ours is the most experienced program among all major pancreas transplant centers in Texas with the best 1-year and 3-year patient survival outcomes. For patients transplanted from January 2005 to June 2007, the program received a 100 percent 1-year patient survival rating compared to the national average of 97.3 percent (source: www.ustransplant.org).

We have fully bilingual, Spanish-speaking physicians, clinical and support staff.


Liver Disease and Transplant

The Liver Transplant Program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital* has been recognized as the best liver transplant program in the country, based on data recently released by the Scientific Registry for Transplant Patients. 

The Liver Transplant Program has the best one-year patient survival rate in the United States among patients with the most seriously advanced liver disease, according to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN)/SRTS Annual Data Report.

Nationally, our program is in the top 10 percentile in the U.S. for three-year survival rates.

The program has continuously maintained the best one- and three-year patient survival rates in Texas for the past 4.5 years. Most recent statistics show a 97.56 percent survival rate for patients one year after their transplant (82 patients) and 86.57 percent for patients (57 patients) three years after their transplant.  No other San Antonio hospital ranks in the top 10 in either category.  

On a percentage basis more medically-urgent transplants are performed here than at any other program in Texas (based on patient MELD scores).

We are the only liver disease center in Central and South Texas to offer new and innovative treatment for primary liver cancer patients when neither resective surgical procedures nor transplantation are a viable option.

Since we began in 2001 we have performed more than 290 liver transplants.

We are approved by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), Medicare and Medicaid.

The unique Liver Tumor Consortium at Texas Transplant Institute was created out of a need to provide organized support for liver cancer. The multidisciplinary team includes transplant surgeons, general surgeons with special interest in solid organ tumors, interventional radiologists and oncologists.

We provide care for primary and metastatic liver tumors with multiple therapies: radiofrequency ablation, radioactive microspheres, chemoembolization, chemotherapy, liver resection and transplantation.

We have fully bilingual, Spanish-speaking physicians, clinical and support staff.

To watch a video highlighting the liver transplant program's achievements and celebrating a decade of compassionate care and cutting-edge programs at Texas Transplant Institute, click here.