2025 Innovations in Review: Transplant

INNOVATIONS IN REVIEW | 2025

TRANSPLANT

INNOVATIONS IN REVIEW

TRANS

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SPLANT The transplant programs at NewYork-Presbyterian rank among the best in the nation for volume and survival. Specialists from Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine lead the field in medical and surgical management of transplant patients, expanding access to lifesaving procedures and improving patient outcomes. In 2025, teams across the institution achieved remarkable milestones, including performing New York’s first heart-lung-liver and fully robotic liver transplant surgeries; developing noninvasive methods to monitor graft rejection in pediatric patients; and successfully treating multiple pediatric and adult patients through innovative domino procedures. These achievements reflect our steadfast commitment to advancing treatment for all patients.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Integrated Team Performs New York’s First Heart-Lung-Liver Transplant

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Transplant Team Achieves First Fully Robotic Living Donor Liver Transplant in NY

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Split-Root Domino Partial Heart Transplant Saves Three Pediatric Patients

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Noninvasive Approach to Rejection Surveillance Can Improve QOL for Pediatric Heart Patients

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Pioneering the First Adult Domino Split-Liver Transplant in the U.S.

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Achieving a First in Robotic Liver Transplant

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Landmark Surgery Saves Three Children With One Donor Heart

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ARTICLE

INTEGRATED TEAM PERFORMS NEW YORK’S FIRST HEART-LUNG-LIVER TRANSPLANT

A multidisciplinary transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia perfor heart-lung-liver transplant in New York on a patient with pulmonary arterial hypert failure, and congestive liver cirrhosis. The 14-hour surgery required months of prep develop a transplant and post-surgical care plan tailored to the patient’s complex The team’s careful coordination demonstrated how skill, collaboration, and surgica medical integration are leading to more successful outcomes in multiorgan transp Read more

The multidisciplinary transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia includes surgeons, medical physicians, nurses, transplant coordinators, and more.

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rmed the first tension, heart paration to condition. al and plantation.

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In order for this transplant to come together, everything had to align. This was the right moment — and when you’re able to follow a patient as closely as we can, we can detect when those moments happen.”

— Dr. Jennifer Haythe, Cardiologist and Director of the Adult Pulmonary Hypertension Program

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ARTICLE

TRANSPLANT TEAM ACHIEVES FIRST FULLY ROBOTIC LIVING DONOR LIVE TRANSPLANT IN NY

A liver transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian performed New York’s first fully r living donor liver transplant, in which both donor and recipient underwent robotic procedures. Led by Juan Rocca, M.D., MHA, surgical director of the Weill Cornell Me Liver Cancer Program, and Benjamin Samstein, M.D., chief of liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, th achievement marked their team’s second major advancement in minimally invasive transplant within a year. Previously, they had performed the state’s first fully robot liver transplant on a patient who received a deceased donor organ. Both surgeries part of a multiphase effort to advance robotic liver surgery at the institution, as it faster recovery and better perioperative outcomes compared to open and laparosc alternatives.

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Dr. Juan Rocca

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Dr. Benjamin Samstein

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robotic

edicine n his e liver tic were offers copic

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These milestones are a testament to our teamwork and the advancements we have made over the past several years to take on more difficult operations, with the goal of improving outcomes for more patients.”

— Dr. Juan Rocca

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ARTICLE

SPLIT-ROOT DOMINO PARTIAL HEART TRANSPLAN SAVES THREE PEDIATRIC PATIENT

A multidisciplinary pediatric heart transplant team at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of Children’s Hospital of New York, led by Andrew Goldstone, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director of heart transplant and mechanic circulatory support and pediatric heart valve transplantation at NewYork-Presbyte and Columbia, is among the first in the nation to perform a split-root domino parti heart transplant. This series of surgeries allowed a pediatric recipient of a donor heart to donate her healthy aortic and pulmonary valves to two other children with congenital heart conditions. Physicians and surgeons see the success of the surge as progress toward innovative solutions to treating pediatric valve disease and are exploring ways to expand opportunities for living heart valve donation.

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Dr. Andrew Goldstone

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cal erian ial

h ery e

From left: John, Hend, and Teddy, the three patients who were part of the split-root domino.

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ARTICLE

NONINVASIVE APPROACH TO REJE SURVEILLANCE CAN IMPROVE QOL FOR PEDIATRIC HEART PATIENTS

Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is the standard approach to monitoring for rejection patients, but for pediatric patients, this invasive procedure can be extremely disrup study led by Irene Lytrivi, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian an find a noninvasive alternative that would enable physicians to monitor for rejection periodic hospitalizations and anesthesia. Her research investigated the efficacy of deoxyribonucleic acid (dd-cfDNA) testing to detect acute rejection and the presenc antibodies in patients, and found that dd-cfDNA screening is a valid method for rul can reliably replace surveillance EMBs due to its very high negative predictive valu will focus on establishing age-specific cutoffs and further examine the integration into a comprehensive testing panel to address the challenge of organ rejection in p Read more

Dr. Irene D. Lytrivi

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Researchers analyzed 471 samples from 192 patients and found:

97%

NPV for antibody-mediated rejection

46%

reduction in biopsies per patient-year

in heart transplant ptive to their lives. A nd Columbia, sought to n without the need for donor-derived cell-free ce of donor-specific ling out graft rejection and ue (NPV). Future research of dd-cfDNA surveillance pediatric patients.

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VIDEO

PIONEERING THE FIRST ADULT DOMINO SPLIT-LIVE TRANSPLANT IN THE U.S.

Tomoaki Kato, M.D., chief of the Division of Abdominal Organ Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, led a groundbreaki liver transplant that provided lifesaving organs to three patients. The series of surgeries started when an altruistic living donor donated a portion of their liver to first recipient, who suffered from a metabolic disease that made their liver unsuita for them but still viable for transplantation to two other people. With more than 30 multidisciplinary specialists involved, including 12 surgeons in four operating room running simultaneously, this procedure demonstrates how NewYork-Presbyterian’s integrated transplant program is uniquely positioned to advance the field of living donor and multiorgan transplantation and expand organ availability.

Watch here

Dr. Tomoaki Kato

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ing

the able 0 ms s

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To do one living donor liver transplant in one facility is enough.

But to do three living donor liver transplants in the same day in one facility requires a lot of resources and expertise.”

— Dr. Tomoaki Kato 14

PODCAST

ACHIEVING A FIRST IN ROBOTIC LIVER TRANSPLANT An integrated team of transplant hepatologists, surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, physician assistants, and other specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine achieved a significant milestone in 2025 by performing New York’s first fully robotic liver transplant. On the Advances in Care podcast, Juan Rocca, M.D., MHA, NewYork-Presbyterian transplant surgeon and surgical director of the Weill Cornell Medicine Liver Cancer Program, shared insights on the advantages of a robotic surgical approach, outlined the careful planning and preparation involved in this groundbreaking procedure, and discussed aspirations for the institution’s program and the broader field of liver transplantation to advance the use of robotics as a minimally invasive solution.

Listen here

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Dr. Juan Rocca

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PODCAST

LANDMARK SURGERY SAVES THREE CHILDREN WITH ONE DONOR HEART On the Advances in Care podcast, Andrew Goldstone, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support and pediatric heart valve transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, recounted how a multidisciplinary team performed a complex pediatric split-root domino partial heart transplant. The procedure involved a series of surgeries that enabled a pediatric recipient of a deceased donor heart to donate their healthy aortic and pulmonary valves to two other children with congenital heart conditions. Dr. Goldstone also discussed how this milestone achievement and other advancements in pediatric cardiac surgery are facilitating innovative living valve transplants that can help more patients in need.

Listen here

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Dr. Andrew Goldstone

From left: John, Hend, and Teddy, the three patients who were part of the split-root domino.

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