Division of Transplant Surgery

Our multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive care for complex hepatobiliary surgical patients as well as liver, kidney, and pancreas transplant patients.

Welcome to the Division of Transplant Surgery at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Our multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive care for complex hepatobiliary surgical patients as well as liver, kidney, and pancreas transplant patients. Our providers are committed to a mission of excellent patient care, research, and innovative surgical techniques. Our goal is to provide our patients waiting for transplantation with seamless care in navigating the complex medical system and to offer them the best opportunity at early transplantation and favorable outcomes.

The University of Colorado is proud to be the longest-running liver transplant program in the world, started by Dr. Tom Starzl, who performed the first kidney transplant in Colorado in 1962 and the first liver transplant in a human in 1963. Dr. Igal Kam, who served as Chief of the Division from 1988 to 2016, succeeded Dr. Starzl. Under Dr. Kam's leadership the program grew rapidly, thrived, and remained in the forefront of surgical innovation, performing the first adult-to-adult live-donor liver transplant in the United States in 1997.

Our transplant program is one of the largest in the United States, and our goal is to continue to grow and lead in the arena of innovative clinical transplant surgery, research, and educating the next generation of transplant surgeons. To date, the University Colorado has performed over 6,000 solid organ transplants, with over a 1,000 of these involving living donors. In collaboration with Children's Hospital Colorado, we can provide transplantation and complex hepatobiliary surgical care for patients of any age. 

Transplant Surgery by the Numbers