Liver Transplant Program

Members of the Children’s Hospital Boston’s Liver Transplant Program evaluate infants, children and adolescents who are potential candidates for transplantation. We manage pediatric patients with end-stage liver disease awaiting transplants and care for children after their transplants. Children cared for in our program may receive whole organ transplants, reduced-size liver transplants, split liver transplants or living donor transplants.

• In some cases, a liver transplant is done in combination with transplantation of another organ, such as intestine or kidney.
• Since the program’s inception in 1984, Children’s has performed more than 200 liver transplants.
• In 2010, U.S. News & World Report ranked Children’s program in gastroenterology number two in the nation among pediatric hospitals.

Understanding liver disease and hepatitis

Research led by Maureen M. Jonas, MD, Medical Director of Children’s Liver Transplant Program, focuses on liver disease in children with emphasis on viral hepatitis. She was the principal investigator in an international pediatric lamivudine trial and the multicenter trial of adefovir dipivoxil, in which the drugs, which are effective in adults with chronic hepatitis B, were tested in children.

Partnering with Lahey and Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center

For living donor transplants, our program collaborates with Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, one of the busiest adult living donor liver transplant programs in the country.

Also, our program is an integral part of the Liver Tumor Program at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center.