Michael Duncan, MD, is chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, part of Baylor Scott & White Health. His expertise includes lung transplantation, pulmonary hypertension and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Dr. Duncan also has experience in cardiovascular critical care.
To provide advanced heart failure treatment to patients in north Louisiana, Baylor Scott & White Health has established an outreach clinic in Shreveport. Since October 2022, Amarinder Bindra, MD, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist on the medical staff at Baylor University Medical Center (Baylor Dallas), part of Baylor Scott & White Health, sees six to eight new patients at each weekly visit.
Three new organ preservation systems allow transplant surgeons to travel farther distances to procure donor livers and provide the ability to better assess potential donor livers that may have borderline function. Through the use of these new preservation systems, Baylor Scott & White Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute has greatly expanded its options for accepting donor livers, especially extended criteria livers that may not have been accepted in the past.
Living liver donors report an immense emotional and spiritual benefit from knowing they are saving the life of a loved one. However, it is impossible to overlook the surgical trauma, cosmetic scars and surgical risks to which otherwise healthy donors are exposed with this major operation. To mitigate the potential harm to donors, Baylor Scott & White Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute has begun performing robotic living donor hepatectomies, one of only two programs in the United States to do so. The transplant team recently performed its 21st robotic living donor hepatectomy.
The burden of liver disease is increasing in Dallas/Fort Worth and throughout the nation. In addition to alcohol abuse or misuse, there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a leading cause of cirrhosis.
