The UCLA Kidney Transplant Program was among the pioneers in transplantation, performing some of the earliest kidney transplants in the United States back in the 1960s. The UCLA Kidney & Pancreas Transplant Program was formally established in 1993 and during its first three years, 50 transplants were performed.

Every year, the UCLA program performs renal transplants in hundreds of adult and pediatric patients, making it the largest program in Southern California. The UCLA Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program has one of the highest kidney transplantation success rates in the world.

A National Reputation for Excellence

The UCLA Kidney & Pancreas Transplant Program has earned a national reputation for its clinical and academic excellence, and is recognized as a national leader in clinical research. As a part of UCLA Transplantation Services, the program is a collaboration between transplant physicians in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA’s Division of Nephrology, surgeons in the Department of Urology’s Division of Transplant Surgery, and UCLA Medical Center. H. Albin Gritsch, M.D., serves as Surgical Director of the Kidney Transplant Program.

The program has pioneered the use of laparoscopic nephrectomy for harvesting kidneys from live donors, making the procedure much less invasive for those donating an organ. Faculty members are actively involved in islet cell transplant research, which is being funded by a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.