Samsung Changwon Hospital Achieves 50 High-Difficulty Liver Transplants ... Patients Arrive from Across the Country

88% of Liver Transplants from Living Donors
Reduced Donor Burden through Laparoscopic Hepatectomy

The Organ Transplantation Center at Samsung Changwon Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University has achieved 50 high-difficulty liver transplants in about 2 years and 10 months since its first successful liver transplant in 2023.

The number of liver transplants performed at Samsung Changwon Hospital's Organ Transplantation Center has been rapidly increasing recently. While it took about 8 months to go from 30 to 40 cases, it took only 5 months to reach 50 from 40. This demonstrates that the entire process, from preparation for liver transplantation to post-operative care, is being managed stably.

(Left) Professor Jaewon Cho, Center Director, performing a liver transplant surgery, (Right) Professor Sunghyo Ahn, performing a pure laparoscopic donor hepatectomy.

Looking at the patient distribution, most patients came from Changwon and the Gyeongnam region. In addition, patients from Busan, North Gyeongsang Province, Daegu, Daejeon, South Jeolla Province, and South Chungcheong Province visited Samsung Changwon Hospital for liver transplantation.

The center has also achieved remarkable technical milestones. Of the total 50 cases, 88% were living donor liver transplants, and the Organ Transplantation Center at Samsung Changwon Hospital applied pure laparoscopic donor hepatectomy to all living donor cases. This technique reduces the incision range, thereby minimizing the donor's scarring, pain, and surgical burden, and requires a high level of expertise from the medical staff.

Such achievements were made possible thanks to a surgical team that had worked together for a long time at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. Led by Professor Jaewon Cho, a globally renowned authority who has performed over 1,800 liver transplants in more than 30 years and is currently the Director of the Organ Transplantation Center, the team’s expertise was further enhanced with the addition of Professors Jisoo Lee and Seonghyo Ahn. As a result, since 2024, the liver transplantation success rate at Samsung Changwon Hospital's Organ Transplantation Center has been 100%, with a postoperative mortality rate of 2.8%, which is considered an excellent outcome by global standards.

Samsung Changwon Hospital has established a highly systematic team not only for liver transplantation but also for the treatment of serious liver diseases, including liver cancer. With renowned liver cancer specialists such as Professors Kwangchul Ko, Wonjae Lee, and Hyuncheol Lim, all from Samsung Medical Center, as well as Professors Hyunkwon Ha and Dongsoo Kim, the hospital has set up a multidisciplinary collaborative care system involving related departments. This enables integrated care from diagnosis to post-surgical management.

Professor Jaewon Cho, Director of the Organ Transplantation Center at Samsung Changwon Hospital, stated, "Liver transplantation is a treatment that requires not only surgery but also pre- and post-operative management. We will do our best to ensure that local residents can receive safe treatment close to home, without having to travel to the Seoul metropolitan area."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.