What is a transplant surgeon? A transplant surgeon specializes
in surgically removing a disease-free organ from a healthy
person (the donor) and transplanting it into a patient (the
recipient) to replace the recipient’s diseased or missing organ.
The most frequently transplanted organ is the kidney, although
other tissues can be successfully transplanted, including the
heart , as well as certain parts of the eye, bone marrow, blood
tissue, and skin. Donors may be alive (as is the case in most
kidney donations) or have died and designated their organs and
tissues for medical donation (heart, lungs, liver, eyes, etc.).
Due to the complexity of transplant surgery, the transplant
surgeon works with a multidisciplinary team that includes
hepatologists (specialists in liver, pancreas and gallbladder
function) and gastroenterologists (specialists in digestive
system function). A transplant surgeon also locates viable
organs or tissue for transplant patients, manages the scarcity
of viable organs, and intervenes in t