UPMC's Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Highly Specialized Therapies in Palermo, Italy, has completed its 3,000th organ transplant.
UPMC-ISMETT is a public-private international partnership between UPMC and the government of Sicily, Italy, that works to ensure patients can receive advanced healthcare without having to travel outside their region or country, according to a March 4 UPMC news release.
The 3,000th organ transplant was provided to an 8-year-old girl from Palermo who received a liver transplant courtesy of UMPC's living donor program.
UPMC-ISMETT's transplant program, which started in 1999, treats adults and children across Europe and surrounding countries who need life-saving procedures. It has performed 1,628 liver transplants, 854 kidney transplants, 222 lung transplants, 234 heart transplants, five pancreas transplants, and 57 combination transplants, according to the release.
Of UPMC-ISMETT's 3,000 transplants, 342 were pediatric, around 300 were completed on people who live in other Italian regions and around 150 were performed on patients living in countries nearby.
The partnership's clinicians and researchers are continuing to create techniques and programs to tackle chronic organ shortages.