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

Call 212-305-0914 for appointments.
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About Tomoaki Kato, MD:

If you need assistance in Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), please call 646-317-6325.
Visit Columbia Liver Asian Outreach Office (English | Mandarin)

Tomoaki Kato, M.D., is a noted pioneer in multiple-organ transplantation, pediatric and adult liver transplantation. Dr. Kato is Surgical Director of Adult and Pediatric Liver and Intestinal Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and is a professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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. In a highly publicized case, he led the first reported removal and re-implantation, or auto-transplantation, of six organs to excise a hard-to-reach abdominal tumor.

Previously the director of pediatric liver and gastrointestinal transplant and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Kato received his medical degree from the Osaka University Medical School in Japan and received his residency training in surgery at Osaka University Hospital and Itami City Hospital in Hyogo, Japan. He completed a clinical fellowship in transplantation at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, in Miami, Florida, where he was subsequently appointed to the surgical faculty in 1997, and promoted to full professor in 2007. He served as a surgeon and senior leader of the liver and transplantation center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, beginning in 1997, and at University of Miami Hospital (previously Cedars Medical Center), beginning in 2004. Dr. Kato is a member of numerous professional and honorary organizations, and the author or co-author of more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Visit The Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at columbiasurgery.org/liver

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Expertise:

Abdominal Organ Transplantation
Abdominal Wall Transplantation
Auto Transplantation
Auxiliary Transplant
Cholangiocarcinoma
Ex-Vivo Resection
Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (Fibrolamellar HCC)
General Surgery
Hepatobiliary Surgery
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
Intestinal Transplant
Liver & Abdominal Transplant Surgery
Liver Transplant
Liver Transplant, Pediatric
Liver Transplantation
Multivisceral Transplantation
Organ Transplant, Pediatric
Pediatric Liver Cancer
Pediatric Surgery
Sarcoma
Small Bowel Resection
Small Bowel Transplant, Pediatric
Small Bowel Transplantation
Surgical Oncology
Transplant Surgery

Honors:

2009-2020 New York Magazine's Best Doctors

2015 Global Alumni Fellow, Osaka University

2014 Nobility in Science Award, Sarcoma Foundation of Americas

2007 Humanitarian of the Year, Consulate General of Israel in Miami

Interests:

Transplant immunology
Immune tolerance
Monitoring of intestinal rejection
Outcomes research for intestinal transplant, Hepatitis C, Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Languages:

Japanese

Appointments:

Edwin C. and Anne K. Weiskopf Professor of Surgical Oncology

Education:

Medical School: Osaka University, Japan
Residency: 1995 Itami City Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
Fellowship: University of Miami Hospital

New Patients:

YES

Locations

Primary Locations:

ColumbiaDoctors - Midtown

51 West 51st Street
Suite 380
New York, NY 10019

For new and current patient appointments, call:
(212) 305-0914

CUIMC/Presbyterian Hospital and Vanderbilt Clinic

622 West 168th Street
Floor 14
New York, NY 10032

For new and current patient appointments, call:
(212) 305-0914

Other Locations:

ColumbiaDoctors - 136-20 38th Avenue

136-20 38th Avenue Office
Suite 8E
Flushing, NY 11354

For new and current patient appointments, call:
(212) 305-0914

CUIMC/NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital

3959 Broadway
Floor 7
New York, NY 10032

Insurances:

Please contact the doctor's office directly to verify that your particular insurance is accepted.

AETNA [EPO, HMO, NYP Employee Plan, Student Health, Aetna Signature Administrators, NY Signature]
Affinity Health Plan [Medicaid Managed Care, Essential Plan]
Amerigroup of New Jersey [New Jersey Services (Medicaid Managed Care)]
CIGNA [EPO, PPO, POS, Medicare Managed Care, Great West (National), HMO, POS, POS]
Emblem/GHI [Medicare Managed Care, PPO]
Emblem/HIP [Medicare Managed Care, Vytra, ConnectiCare, EPO, PPO, Select Care (Exchange), POS, Essential Plan, HMO, ConnectiCare]
Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield HealthPlus [Essential Plan, Medicaid Managed Care, Child/Family Health Plus]
Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield [PPO]
Fidelis Care [Medicaid Managed Care, Child/Family Health Plus, Medicare Managed Care]
Healthfirst [Medicare Managed Care, Child/Family Health Plus, Leaf (Exchange)]
Local 1199 [Local 1199, Local 1199]
MVP Health Care [Medicaid Managed Care, Child/Family Health Plus, Essential Plan, Medicaid Managed Care, Medicaid Managed Care]
MagnaCare (National) [MagnaCare, MagnaCare]
Medicare [Traditional Medicare, Railroad]
Multiplan [Multiplan, Multiplan]
RiverSpring [Special Needs]
UnitedHealthcare [Columbia University Employee Plan, PPO, HMO, POS, Empire Plan, Medicaid (Community Plan), Compass (Exchange), Oxford Liberty, Oxford Freedom, Oxford HMO, Medicare Managed Care, Medicare Managed Care, Medicare Managed Care]
VNSNY CHOICE [Special Needs, SelectHealth]
WellCare [Medicare Managed Care]
World Trade Center Health Plan [World Trade Center Health Plan]

Publications:

Young?Dong Yu, Regina Hwang, Karim J. Halazun, Adam Griesemer, Tomoaki Kato, Jean Emond, Benjamin Samstein.Whose Liver Is It Anyway? Two Centers Participating in One Living Donor Transplantation 2019;25:1710-1713

Shilpa Ravella, Peter Liou, Monica Velasco, Alycea Harrison, Tomoaki Kato, Mercedes Martinez. Nutritional Challenges in Patients After Intestinal Autotransplantation and Ex Vivo Surgery. Volume43, Issue2 February 2011 Pages 245-251

Human Intestinal Allografts Contain Functional Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells that Are Maintained by a Circulating Pool. JianingFu, JulienZuber, MercedesMartinez, BrittanyShonts, AleksandarObradovic, HuiWang1Sai-pingLau, AmyXia, Elizabeth E.Waffarn, KristjanaFrangaj, Thomas M.Savage, Michael T.Simpson, SuxiaoYang, Xinzheng V.Guo,MichelleMiron, TakashiSenda, KortneyRogers, AdeebRahman, MeganSykes. Cell Stem Cell 2019; 24:197-198

Samstein B, Griesemer A, Halazun K, Kato T, Guarrera JV, Cherqui D, Emond JC. Pure Laparoscopic Donor Hepatectomies: Ready for Widespread Adoption? Ann Surg 2018;268:602-609

Przybyszewski EM, Verna EC, Lobritto SJ, Martinez M, Vittorio JM, Fox AN, Samstein B, Kato T, Griesemer AD, Emond JC. Durable Clinical and Immunologic Advantage of Living Donor Liver Transplantation in Children. Transplantation 2018;102:953-960

Chaudhry SG, Bentley?Hibbert S, Stern J, Lobritto S, Martinez M, Vittorio J, Halazun KJ, Lee HT, Emond J, Kato T, Samstein B, Griesemer A. Growth of liver allografts over time in pediatric transplant recipients. Pediatr Transplant 2018;22:e13104

Halazun KJ, Rana AA, Fortune B, Quillin III RC, Verna EC, Samstein B, Guarrera JV, Kato T, Griesemer AD, Fox A, Brown Jr RS, Emond JC. No country for old livers? Examining and optimizing the utilization of elderly liver grafts. Am J Transplant 2018;18:669-678

Elnaggar AS, Griesemer AD, Bentley?Hibbert S, Brown Jr RS, Martinez M, Lobritto SJ, Kato T, Emond JC. Liver atrophy and regeneration in noncirrhotic portal vein thrombosis: Effect of surgical shunts. Liver Transpl 2018;24:881-887

Carpenter DJ, Granot T, Matsuoka N, Senda T, Kumar BV, Thome JJC, Gordon CL, Miron M, Weiner J, Connors T, Lerner H, Friedman A, Kato T, Griesemer AD, Farber DL. Human immunology studies using organ donors: Impact of clinical variations on immune parameters in tissues and circulation. Am J Transplant 2018;18:74-88

Kato Y, Greisemer AD, Wu A, Sondemeijer H, Weiner JI, Duran-Struuck R, Martinez M, Slate AR, Romanov A, Lefkowitch JH, Sukes M, Kato T*. Novel H-shunt venovenous bypass for liver transplantation in cynomolgus macaques. Comparative Medicine 2017;67:436-441

Weiner J, Zuber J, Shonts B, Yang S, Fu J, Martinez M, Farber D, Kato T, Sykes M. Long-Term Persistence of Innate Lymphoid Cells in the Gut After Intestinal Transplantation. Transplantation 2017; 101: 2449-2454

Halazun KJ, Quillin RC, Rosenblatt R, Bongu A, Griesemer AS, Kato T, Smith C, Michelassi F, Guarrera JV, Samstein B, Brown RS, Emond JC. Ann Surg 2017;266:441-449