Stanford Transplant News 2025

Carlos O. Esquivel, MD, PhD, has been named the 2025 recipient of the International Pediatric Transplant Association (IPTA) Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor recognizes an IPTA member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of pediatric transplantation over the course of their career. Only one award is presented every two years at the association’s Biennial Congress.

The use of liver grafts from donors after circulatory death (DCD) has been part of liver transplantation practice for more than two decades but remained underutilized until recently. Historically, two major complications limited broader adoption: (1) primary non-function (PNF), an immediate post-transplant graft failure due to severe ischemic injury, and (2) ischemic cholangiopathy (IC), a biliary complication that typically manifests within 1–3 months after transplant and often necessitates re-transplantation.

Stanford Medicine has completed its first robotic kidney transplant, marking a milestone for both the institution and the region. The procedure, performed by Dr. Thomas Pham and Dr. Stephan Busque, represents the first time this approach has been used for kidney transplantation in Northern California.

On December 2, 2025, the Division of Abdominal Transplantation hosted the 20th Annual Oscar Salvatierra Jr. Lectureship at Stanford Medicine. This year’s lecture was delivered by Dr. Stefan Tullius, MD, PhD, who presented “The ‘Graying’ Transplantation Challenge: Older Organs and Older Patients Need Our Attention.” The event took place during Surgery Grand Rounds.

Greg Tiao, MD will join the Stanford Surgery team as a Professor in in the UML effective January 1, 2026. Tiao will be dual-appointed in the Divisions of Abdominal Transplantation and Pediatric Surgery.