Tampa General reaches 1,000 liver perfusions, says transplant waits have dropped
The hospital says routine machine perfusion has nearly doubled its liver transplant program.
TAMPA - Tampa General Hospital's Transplant Institute has completed its 1,000th liver perfusion, the hospital said in an Oct. 20 news release, describing its program as the world's largest center-based liver normothermic machine perfusion program.
The technique keeps a donor liver outside the body near normal body temperature while oxygenated blood and nutrients circulate through it, letting the team judge how the organ works before transplant. TGH said it did its first liver perfusion in October 2022 and has used the method for every liver it has transplanted since September 2023.
The hospital said routine perfusion has nearly doubled the size of its liver transplant program and cut the median time from joining the waiting list to transplant to less than one month for its patients.
According to the release, the TGH Transplant Institute performed 895 transplants across its programs in 2025, and Tampa General has done more than 15,000 organ transplants over more than 50 years.