A surgical team at Cleveland Clinic became the first in Ohio to perform an ex vivo intestinal autotransplantation.
The procedure involved removing an abdominal tumor, the pancreatic head and small intestine as one unit, then reimplanting the small intestine after the tumor was removed outside the patient’s body, according to an Oct. 15 news release from Cleveland Clinic.
The surgery was performed earlier in 2026 by Masato Fujiki, MD, surgical director of Cleveland Clinic’s Intestinal Transplant Program, and a multidisciplinary team that included Robert Naples, DO.
The first patient to undergo the procedure at Cleveland Clinic was a 38-year-old woman who had a large, advanced tumor surrounding the superior mesenteric artery. The patient has returned home after a period of recovery and additional procedures, the release said.
