Services & Specialties

Pediatric Liver Transplant Center

If your child needs a liver transplant, you want a highly trained, experienced transplant team to be by your side every step of the way—from evaluation to surgery to long-term follow-up. That’s what you’ll find at Cincinnati Children’s, home to one of the largest pediatric liver transplant centers in the United States. Since 1988, we have performed more than 800 liver transplants, including multi-organ transplants. And over the last 10 years, our team has performed more liver transplants for patients with liver tumors than any other hospital in the country.

Our experts offer innovative, state-of-the-art care for patients with the most complex medical needs and support for families before, during and after transplant. The center’s outcomes—how patients do after being placed on the waiting list—are exceptional. Cincinnati Children’s has an 81 percent improved survival rate for patients on the liver transplant waitlist compared to the national average for transplant centers.

Shorter average times on the transplant waitlist

• The median wait time for a new liver at Cincinnati Children’s is 3.7 months, compared to the national median wait time of 8.7 months.
• 66.2% of our patients receive a transplant within one year of waitlisting, compared to 49.3% nationally.
• Our mortality rate for children on the waitlist is almost half the national average.

Liver Care Clinic appointments are available in-person within 48 hours – faster if the need is urgent

We also offer second opinion appointments urgently. Our team begins coordinating the second opinion appointment as soon as they receive the child’s medical record.

Expertise in treating complex conditions

Many patients seek out Cincinnati Children’s because our team has the experience and expertise to care for children who have rare, advanced and difficult-to-diagnose liver disease or need a multi-organ transplant.

Specialized therapies for children with liver tumors

Our liver transplant team works closely with cancer specialists at Cincinnati Children’s to coordinate each child’s care and offer advanced cancer therapies before and after transplantation.

State-of-the-art imaging, surgical and treatment technologies

One example is the Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System, or MARS, which removes toxic substances from the body to help maintain liver function while a patient awaits a transplant.

Cutting-edge liver disease research

The Liver Care Center at Cincinnati Children’s conducts basic and clinical research studies to find new therapies for end-stage liver disease, including nonsurgical alternatives to liver transplant.

Why Are We Quicker to Transplant?

Our average waitlist times are shorter than those at other centers across the United States for two main reasons.

First, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s geographic location provides patients the opportunity to match with a lifesaving organ. This can mean less time on the transplant waitlist, less stress on families and a faster return to school, play and all the other activities of life that children deserve.

The second reason is that Cincinnati Children’s offers many transplant options: living-related liver donation, altruistic (anonymous) living liver donation, and split/partial or whole organ deceased donor transplants. This versatility improves patients’ chances that they will match to a donor organ. In 2020 alone, our team did 39 liver transplants – the highest number of any pediatric transplant center in the United States.