At UCC MUW, we perform liver, kidney, pancreas, bone marrow, cornea, lung, heart and multi-organ transplants, both in adults and children. This is possible thanks to outstanding transplant teams and modern equipment – teams that can work together in extremely difficult situations requiring efficient coordination and planning. This was the case in January 2024, when 6 livers, 7 kidneys, 1 heart, lungs and a pancreas were transplanted in one day in our department! Within 24 hours, fifteen patients were given a chance at a new life – one of them received two organs (more info).
After a successful organ transplant, patients can lead a normal life, continue their education, return to work, have a hobby, travel.
MUW today – leader and innovator
In 2025, our specialists transplanted 22 hearts, including 9 pediatric hearts; 7 lungs; 428 livers, including 15 liver fragments from living donors; 240 kidneys, including 22 from living donors; 16 pancreases. In total, 713 transplantations were performed, which amounts to almost 1/3 of the transplants performed this year nationwide.
Every transplanted organ is a chance for a new life, which is why our specialists are looking for more and more innovative transplantation methods. The team from the Chair and Department of General, Transplant and Liver Surgery UCC MUW performed the world's first liver supportive transplantation in a patient after an injury to her own organ as a result of a road traffic accident (more information). The department also launched a program to transplant a liver fragment from a living donor for an adult recipient (more information).
Specialists from the Department of Heart, Chest and Transplant Surgery UCC MUW use the advanced OCS Heart system to transport hearts for transplantation, which allows to keep the harvested heart outside the body in a metabolically active state for up to 12 hours (more information).
First operation and first patient
The operation was performed on 26 January 1966 by a team led by the outstanding surgeon Prof. Jan Nielubowicz from the 1st Chair and Department of Surgery, in close cooperation with the internal medicine and nephrology team of Prof. Tadeusz Orłowski from the 1st Chair and Department of Internal Medicine.
Danuta Milewska was the recipient. She was 18 years old and had her kidneys excised two months before the transplantation due to a serious infection. Since then, she had been undergoing long hours of arduous dialysis, repeated several times a week. The kidney donor was a woman who died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident. The transplantation only took several dozen minutes.
Department with a long history and successes
The 1st Chair and Department of Surgery made a permanent mark on the history of Polish transplantology. After the first successful kidney transplant in Poland, the specialists of the department also performed: the first simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation in Poland (1988), the first parathyroid cell allotransplantation in Poland (1990), the first laparoscopic kidney harversting from a living donor in Poland (2003).
The Chair and Department of General, Vascular, Endocrine and Transplant Surgery UCC MUW, currently headed by Prof. Zbigniew Gałązka is the heir and continuator of the above-mentioned clinical and scientific achievements.
The department is a leading center in the field of vascular, endocrine, transplant and minimally invasive surgery. Therapeutic activities include a full spectrum of basic and highly specialized operations. About 2,000 procedures are performed each year.
In 2019, the department performed an autotransplantation of a transplanted kidney with an extracorporeal vascular reconstruction. It was unique on a global scale. In 2021, another unique operation was performed to remove a diseased kidney with a simultaneous transplantation. In November last year an operation was performed to simultaneously transplant two kidneys connected en bloc from a deceased pediatric donor to an adult recipient. Such operations are rare both in Poland and in the world. How important is the courage to cross borders in transplantology?
Prof. Zbigniew Gałązka: "Courage and enthusiasm should go hand in hand with prudence whether we are talking about transplantology or another field of medicine, especially surgical one. This results in progress and, at the same time, safety for our patients."
The department is the only center in Poland which performs kidney transplants in patients with advanced atherosclerotic lesions, as well as endovascular treatment of aneurysms and stenoses of all arteries after organ transplantation. How did you manage to achieve this?
Prof. Zbigniew Gałązka: "Since its establishment in a new location in Central Clinical Hospital at Banacha Street in 1975, the department has combined a vascular and a transplant profile. For 50 years, we have managed to gain experience that is unique on a national scale. More and more people of advanced age are qualified as transplant recipients. This means that recipients are much more likely than in the past to suffer from atherosclerosis, the presence of which may lead, for example, to their disqualification as candidates for transplantation. We are able to prepare these patients for transplantation using both classic (open) and modern endovascular methods. Finally, we can safely treat both early and long-term vascular complications in post-transplantation patients."
In what direction will transplantology develop?
Prof. Zbigniew Gałązka: “Certainly, the existing potential of organ donation from deceased donors should be used in a more effective way. It may be done by better identification of potential donors, as well as by activating centers in Poland with a potential to donate, but which do not participate in the organ donation and transplantation program. The promotion of living donation is another element. In Poland, kidneys harvested from living donors (most often family transplants) account for 5-8%, while in Scandinavian centers, for example, this percentage exceeds 25%.”
“The future of transplantology? There are a lot of options and each organ has its own developmental specificity. Maybe in the near future, xenotransplantation of genetically modified organs from animals will be widely performed, maybe it will be sublime mechanical devices using nano- and biotechnology, maybe we will transplant printed organs, or maybe we will be able to produce immunotolerance in such a way that allografts will not be recognized by our bodies as "foreign" and there will be no need to use immunosuppression?”
More information about the autotransplantation of a kidney transplanted with an extracorporeal vascular reconstruction
More information about the unique operation of removing a diseased kidney with simultaneous transplantation
More information about the operation of simultaneous transplantation of kidneys connected en bloc to an adult recipient
MUW departments performing organ transplantation
- Chair and Department of General, Transplant and Liver Surgery, Central Clinical Hospital
- Chair and Department of General, Vascular, Endocrine and Transplant Surgery, Central Clinical Hospital
- Chair and Department of General and Transplant Surgery, Infant Jesus Clinical Hospital
- Department of Heart, Chest and Transplant Surgery, Central Clinical Hospital
Clinical departments of the MUW closely cooperating in the field of transplantology
- Department of Hepatology and Internal Medicine, Chair and Department of General, Transplant and Liver Surgery
- Department of Nephrology, Dialysis and Internal Medicine, Central Clinical Hospital
- Department of Transplantology, Immunology, Nephrology and Internal Medicine, Infant Jesus Clinical Hospital
MUW departments performing cell and tissue transplantation
- Chair and Department of Hematology, Oncology and Internal Medicine, Central Clinical Hospital
- Chair and Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Transplantology, Pediatric Teaching Clinical Hospital
- Chair and Department of Ophthalmology, Independent Public Clinical Ophthalmology Hospital
- Chair and Department of Ophthalmology, Infant Jesus Clinical Hospital