SLU Hospital Center for Abdominal Transplant

Saint Louis University Hospital Center for Abdominal Transplant offers comprehensive treatments for liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantation. As a leading transplant center in the U.S., our efforts in research, education, patient care and successful outcomes often receive high acclaim. The following are just a few features and highlights about our program:

• With more than 200 organ transplants performed yearly, we have established a reputation for excellence and innovation in patient care and research.
• Many of our transplant recipients are approaching their 33-year survival milestones and are leading rich and productive lives.
• Our one-year liver transplant patient survival rate is an impressive 91.51 percent which exceeds the expected rate of 90.41%.
• Our one-year kidney transplant patient survival rate is 97.21 percent which is in line with the expected rate of 97.20 percent.
• Led by Bruce R. Bacon, M.D., Transplant Center Director, and Division Chief of Gastroenterology, the Center is made up of an elite group of surgeons, hepatologists, nephrologists and other physician specialists.
• The Center is located on the fifth floor and features 18 rooms for patient care coordinators, social workers, a bone marrow unit, charting area, consultation rooms, financial consultants and a conference room.

Transplant Awards

Saint Louis University Hospital’s Transplant Services Division is often recognized for its transplantation success and efforts to increase organ donation awareness. The following are some of these awards:

• The Missouri Hospital Association honored SLU Hospital with the ‘Donate Life Award’ in 2009. The award recognizes SLU Hospital’s Transplant Services for its exceptional leadership in raising awareness of organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services presented SLU Hospital with the ‘Silver One Medal’ in 2009. The hospital’s Transplant Services was recognized for its success in increasing the number of organs available for transplantation. To qualify for the medal, SLU Hospital staff was required to have eight or more eligible organ donors during the 22-month award period ending in April 2009. Of those potential organ donors, the staff worked with donor families to convert 75 percent to actual donors. Additionally, 10 percent or more of those donors were ‘donation after cardiac death.’
• Nephrology News & Issues (NN&I) ranked SLU Hospital’s abdominal organ transplant program among the 50 most active renal transplant centers in the U.S. for 2007.

 Meet the Team

Our abdominal organ transplant team operates within four separate divisions, which are directed by world-renowned medical and surgical transplantation specialists. Leaders in their respective fields, these collaborative specialists share their advanced skills, precise techniques, state-of-the-art technologies and research efforts to deliver the highest quality patient care with positive outcomes.  

Transplant Administration

Dr. Bruce Bacon, MD (Center Director)

Landon V. Ware, MBA, Transplant Administrator

Transplant Surgery

J. Betsy Tuttle-Newhall, MD, Surgical Director for Kidney Transplant

Harvey Solomon, MD Transplant Surgeon

Transplant Hepatology

Alex Befeler, MD Medical Director Liver Transplant

Iliana Bouneva, MD Transplant Hepatologist

Transplant Nephrology

Bahar Bastani, MD, Medical Director for Kidney Transplant

Nadia Wasi, MD, Transplant Nephrologist

Alexandra Voinescu, MD, Transplant Nephrologist

Rizwan Qazi, MD Transplant Nephrologist

Saint Louis University HospitalSaint Louis University Hospital is a 356-licensed bed quaternary/tertiary referral center located in the heart of the city of St. Louis. Approximately 75 percent of our patients are drawn from a 150-mile radius of the hospital, and the rest come to us from outside this 150-mile area. Through our affiliation as the teaching hospital for Saint Louis University, we provide our patients and their families with an environment of medical innovation. We are smaller than most major academic medical centers, which allows our physicians and staff the chance to know our patients and their families better. Working with us in this endeavor are our medical staff partners, SLUCare, the physicians of Saint Louis University. The hospital admits more than 17,000 patients annually, performs more than 200 organ transplants a year and is a Level I Trauma Center that treats more than 2,000 major trauma cases a year. The hospital has a medical staff of more than 450 physicians, employs more than 2,000 health professionals and has an active volunteer staff of more than 200.

SLUCare

SLUCare is a leading patient-centered, physician-guided provider of health care services in the St. Louis region, consisting of physicians, nurse practitioners, medical assistants and related professionals who provide high-quality care for patients locally, regionally and nationally. SLUCare is the only academic medical practice in St. Louis fully accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Inc. This accreditation is a voluntary process through which the quality of SLUCare services and performance is measured against nationally recognized standards.