WESTWOOD—Data published by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in January shows that UCLA has provided the most combined heart and lung transplants among all medical centers in the United States in 2016.
UCLA performed an estimated 170 transplants over a 12-month period: 103 lung transplants and 67 heart transplants, nine of which were for pediatric patients.
“This accomplishment is a tribute to our dedicated surgeons, physicians, nurses, and allied health care professionals who are open to new challenges,” said Dr. Abbas Ardehali, the UCLA transplant program surgical director, in a news release. “We take pride in the innovative nature of our program and look forward to setting new standards in the years to come.”
The UCLA transplant program is ranked as one of the best in the nation, and has become “a pioneer in transplant research, organ procurement, surgical techniques and patient care,” according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, which based its rankings on patient survival rates and transplant surgery outcomes.
The number of organ transplants in the U.S. reached a record high in 2016, for the fourth time in a row, UNOS reported. A total of 33,606 transplants were performed: an 8.5 percent increase since 2015 and 19.8 percent increase since 2012.
“The increase in the number of deceased donors and transplants performed in the United States in 2016 was the biggest in any year since we began sharing organs nationally in 1998,” UNOS Public Relations Manager Anne Paschke told Canyon News. “We are grateful to all who have chosen to save lives through organ donations allowing thousands more men, women and children to receive transplants.”
UNOS is a nonprofit organization that manages the nation’s transplant system under contract with the federal government. It regulates the order of the organ donation waiting list, which is sequenced based on patients’ needs, such as severity of illness. UNOS also deals with the allocation of transplant organs.
