Liver Disease and Transplantation

The Living Donor Liver Transplant program at New York Presbyterian Hospital is one of the largest living donor liver programs in North America.

There are many new things a person experiences after liver transplantation. Before you leave the hospital, your team will provide all the instructions you and your family will need in caring for the "new" you. Three months after the operation, most patients have recovered fully, returned to work, and are enjoying active lives. Our goal is to provide expert care and excellent follow-up, working with your primary care physician, to make the extent and quality of your life appreciably better than before. We urge you and your local doctor to keep in touch with the CLDT to let us partner in your ongoing care.

With nationally and internationally recognized authorities in established modalities as well as experimental techniques, the treatment team for hepatocellular carcinoma and hilar cholangiocarcinoma at the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is setting new standards for patient outcomes—including long-term survival—in resection, adjuvant therapies, and transplantation.

Cirrhosis, scarring of the liver caused by injury over a period of time, is a consequence of chronic hepatitis, excessive alcohol use, and other less common causes including infections, drug toxins, and inherited diseases.

Meaning literally inflammation of the liver, hepatitis refers to a group of conditions, most of which are caused by one of many viruses. Hepatitis can also be inherited (congenital hepatitis) or brought on by excess alcohol consumption.

The Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation may recommend a liver transplant for patients with severe liver disease and liver failure when all other treatment options are exhausted. This surgical procedure replaces your damaged liver with a healthy one. Ideally, after transplant, you are free from disease and able to lead a fairly normal life with your new liver.

Benjamin Samstein, MD, the Surgical Director at the Living Donor Liver Transplant Program and an Attending Surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, discusses surgical treatment of colorectal cancer that has metastasized to the liver.