The Division of Transplant Surgery in the University of Colorado Anschutz Department of Surgery just hit a major milestone — 10,000 transplant surgeries performed since the 1980s, when the division began tracking its numbers.
The impressive total breaks down to 5,000 kidneys, 3,000 livers, 1,000 lungs, and 1,000 hearts transplanted in that time period — and a corresponding numbers of patients’ lives saved or prolonged thanks to the transplant teams that performed the operations.
We sat down with Trevor Nydam, MD, head of the transplant division, to talk more about the accomplishment and what it means for the Department of Surgery as a whole.