A short history of liver transplantation

1967: The first successful cadaver liver transplant from human to human is performed on an infant by Dr. Thomas Starzl at the University of Colorado in Denver. The young patient survived for 400 days.

1978: The drug cyclosporine, which staves off organ rejection, revolutionizes the field of liver transplantation. Survival rates begin to climb.

1984: The National Organ Transplant Act establishes a national system of matching donors to recipients.

1984: First transplantation of part of an adult cadaver liver into a pediatric patient is performed, allowing more critically ill babies to receive lifesaving therapy.

1988: University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center establishes a liver transplant program.

1990: As a worldwide shortage of cadaver donor organs continues to worsen, the first successful liver transplant from a living donor is performed in Australia. Healthy people are now able to donate parts of their livers to sick loved ones. Doctors around the world begin performing the transplants, first on children, later on adults.

1992: University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center performs its first living-donor transplant between an adult and a child.

2000: UCSF Medical Center performs its first adult-to-adult living-donor transplant.

2005: Nationwide success rates for liver transplants from living donors climb to more than 85 percent. Today at UCSF Medical Center about 91 percent of patients are alive a year after their transplants.

Sources: United Network for Organ Sharing, various research papers, UCSF, www.ustransplant.org.