Loyola University Health System is widely recognized as one of the nation's most experienced and successful solid organ transplant centers, particularly for its expertise in heart and lung transplantation. Today Loyola is implementing a five-year plan to build its liver and kidney transplantation programs to the same level that it has achieved with heart and lung transplant.
A renowned expert in cardiac and thoracic surgery, Robert B. Love, MD, professor, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, is spearheading the effort. Dr. Love is a cardiothoracic surgeon with vast transplantation experience and the medical director of Lung Transplantation at Loyola. In the past 20 years, Dr. Love has performed over 1,000 of lung transplant surgeries.
A key element of Loyola's five-year plan is attracting top surgeons into the transplant program. Recently hired, Howard Sankary, MD, FACS, professor, surgery, Stritch and division director of Intra-abdominal Transplant Surgery at Loyola is one of them. "Dr. Sankary is a highly experienced and talented liver transplant surgeon, recruited to lead our abdominal transplant efforts," Dr. Love said.
Dr. Sankary joins John Brems, MD, FACS, the John P. Igini, MD, Professor of Surgery at Stritch, who has been the liver transplant surgeon at Loyola for 12 years and is the medical director of Liver Transplantation. Together, Drs. Brems and Sankary have performed more than 1,000 liver transplantations. Dr. Sankary will also assist the kidney transplant team, which includes David R. Holt, MD, FACS, associate professor, surgery, Stritch, and medical director of Renal Transplant, and John Milner, MD, FRCSC, assistant professor, urology, Stritch, whose specialties include pediatric kidney transplantation, living donor kidney transplant, and complex kidney tumors.
The Loyola transplantation program is supported by an extensive team of referring physicians, transplant surgeons, dietitians, pharmacists, social workers, psychiatrists and the highly experienced nurse coordinators who guide patients through the transplant process before and after their surgeries.
This comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach, often emulated by other transplant centers across the country, contributes directly to Loyola's success on behalf of its patients. "We have excellent outcomes for all of our transplant programs," says Dr. Love. "In the past 20 years we have performed more than 600 lung transplants and 700 heart transplants, making Loyola one of the most experienced transplant programs in North America."
"The goal is to achieve excellent clinical results in the abdominal transplant program and to grow steadily every year as we have in the heart and lung transplant programs." Dr. Sankary said.
Loyola is nationally known for taking on challenging cases that other transplant programs may be unwilling to accept. Caring for patients who are highest risk and without other recourse is in keeping with the hospital's mission, says Dr. Love. "Loyola is an academic medical center, and it's our vision and mission to be the leaders treating the most complex diseases facing our patients."
Referring physicians nationwide have expressed great faith in Loyola's team. "I think Dr. Love takes a great deal of interest in the individual patient," said John M. Walsh, MD, a pulmonologist with a respiratory clinic in Joliet. "When we send patients with severe, advanced lung disease to Loyola, they're looked at in terms of the whole person, not just a lung transplant candidate."
Where to Learn More
For more information, or to schedule an appointment please visit www.LoyolaMedicine.org or call (888) LUHS-888 (888-584-7888).
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM
