Living Donor Liver Transplantation Program

About Living Donors  |  Conditions We Treat  |  Our Team  |  Resources & Guides  |  Contact

Our Living Donor Liver Transplantation Program is one of the largest and most successful in the country. Data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients shows that our results well exceed national outcomes for living donor liver transplantations.

Our program offers:

  • Experience: Since the 1980s, our doctors have pioneered the development of living donor liver transplantations and have even participated in the first successful U.S. procedure. This unique history gives our program an enviable level of expertise.

  • Innovation: We are one of a few institutions that offers minimally invasive robotic living donor surgery in the U.S. Patients benefit from faster recovery times, shorter hospital stays, reduced pain, lower risk of complications, and reduced scarring. Our doctors are constantly developing new and better methods of treatment.
     

    Photograph showing medical staff performing robotic surgery in an operating room.
    Seated surgeon looking into a da Vinci Xi robotic system
    Side by side illustrations of two human torsos showing the different surgical incision lines for robotic versus open surgeries
    Robotic liver surgery can be safely performed through small 1cm incisions with a “bikini incision” for specimen removal as opposed to traditional open liver surgery which requires a large abdominal incision.

  • Care: While we focus on producing great results during surgery, it’s also our mission to provide long-term care to all of our patients. To that end, we offer supplemental health programs and additional services like a donor mentoring program, a full-time transplant coordinator, and specialized nurses trained to handle the needs of donors and recipients.

Whether you’re interested in becoming a living donor or would like to become a recipient, we are ready to help you. Call us at (877) LIVER MD/ (877) 548-3763 or fill out our online request form to get started.

About Living Donor Liver Transplantation

A living donor liver transplantation is a surgery that removes a diseased or malfunctioning liver and replaces it with a portion of a healthy liver from a living donor. Due to the liver’s unique ability to regenerate, the partial livers of both the donor and recipient soon grow into complete organs.

Learn more about living donor liver transplantation here.

Conditions We Treat

In both pediatric and adult patients, living donor liver transplants can be used to treat a range of end-stage liver conditions. These include:

See a comprehensive list on the Conditions & Treatments page.

Our Team

We pair experienced surgeons with a multidisciplinary team of nurses, care workers, and other medical specialists so that we can provide you with comprehensive care. 

Surgical Team

Jean C. Emond, MD
Vice Chair, Department of Surgery

Dr. Emond has spent a substantial portion of his career developing living donor liver transplantation and studying the safety of the procedure in both the donor and recipient. He participated in the first living donor liver transplant in the United States and focused on refining the techniques of performing living donor liver transplants and split liver transplants.

Tomoaki Kato, MD
Chief, Division of Abdominal Organ Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery
Surgical Director, Liver and Gastrointestinal Transplantation
Clinical Director, Transplant Services at NYP/Columbia

Dr. Kato is known for unique and innovative surgeries for adults and children, including a six-organ transplant; a procedure called APOLT (auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation) that resuscitates a failing liver by attaching a partial donor liver, making immunosuppressant drugs unnecessary and the first successful human partial bladder transplantation involving the transplant of two kidneys together with ureters connected to a patch of the donor bladder.

Dr Jason Hawksworth

Jason Hawksworth, MD
Chief, Hepatobiliary Surgery
Surgical Director, Adult Liver Transplantation
Director of Robotic Liver Surgery Program

Jason Hawksworth, MD is a noted pioneer in minimally invasive robotic hepatobiliary and transplant surgery. Dr. Hawksworth is known for unique and innovative minimally invasive robotic surgeries to remove tumors of the liver, bile duct and pancreas, including robotic major hepatectomy, robotic pancreatectomy, and robotic Whipple. He also specializes in robotic transplantation including robotic kidney transplantation, robotic living donor nephrectomy and robotic living donor hepatectomy.

Dr Peter Liou

Peter Liou, MD

Dr. Peter Liou is skilled in minimally invasive surgery and trained to perform both laparoscopic and robotic surgery whenever possible. His practice interests focus on the surgical management of adults and children with liver and bile duct disease including those with liver failure, cirrhosis, bile duct and gallbladder disease, as well as those with benign and malignant liver tumors and cysts.

Dr Nathaly Llore

Nathaly Llore, MD

Dr. Nathaly Llore received specialty training in abdominal transplant and hepatobiliary surgery. Her practice interests focus on the surgical management of children and adults with liver and bile duct disease, including benign and malignant liver tumors. She practices minimally invasive surgical techniques in liver surgery to shorten recovery times and reduce post operative discomfort.

Medical Team

Dr Alyson Fox

Alyson N. Fox, MD
Medical Director, Adult Liver Transplant Program

Dr. Fox's clinical practice is focused on the management of patients with a variety of liver diseases including viral hepatitis, alcoholic and non alcoholic fatty liver diseases, inherited liver diseases and liver cancers. As a transplant hepatologist, she has advanced training in the management of complications of end stage liver disease and caring for patients both pre and post liver transplantation. Her research area is focused on issues related to organ allocation and complications of portal hypertension. 

"Honoring Donor Life Month" NY1 featuring Dr. Alyson Fox.

Living Donor Specialist

Jennica Kim

Donor Champion Coordinator

Pamela Cobbs

Physician Assistants

Lisa Oriach, PA 
Jacqueline Nigam, PA-C

Internist and Independent Living Donor Advocate

Doug Marratta, MD

Social Worker and Independent Living Donor Advocate

Sonia Scott
Karen Robbins

Psychiatry 

Akhil Shenoy, MD

Dietitian

Kimbery De Lillo, RD

Financial Coordinator

Jennifer Fojas

Resources and Guides

Learn more about living donor liver transplantations and our support services:

Contact Us

Get in touch to schedule an appointment, ask a question, or just meet the team.

622 W. 168th St., 14th floor
New York, NY 10032

(877) LIVER MD/ (877) 548-3763 | Request an Appointment

If you'd like to learn more about becoming a Living Liver Donor, give us a call at (212) 305-9381 or get in touch using our donor inquiry form.

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