Eric Martinez, MD, a fellowship-trained, multi-organ abdominal transplant surgeon, has been named surgical director of kidney and pancreas transplant at Baylor University Medical Center (Baylor Dallas), part of Baylor Scott & White Health. He is fluent in both English and Spanish.
Sumeet Asrani, MD, MSc, has been promoted to chief of hepatology and liver transplantation, Baylor Scott & White Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute. Dr. Asrani has served as the medical director of the Center for Advanced Liver Disease since 2016. In addition, he has provided clinical care at both Baylor University Medical Center (Baylor Dallas), part of Baylor Scott & White Health, and Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Waxahachie.
In the past five years, Dr. Asrani, who is nationally and internationally recognized in hepatology and transplant hepatology, restructured the research enterprise of BSWH Transplant Institute. He has been instrumental in making the name of the institute and Baylor Scott & White Health a widely recognized presence in the national and international academic world. Dr. Asrani has published 140 peer-reviewed publications and more than 300 abstracts, has given more than 125 national and international presentations, and mentored more than 30 trainees to help advance their medical careers.
In commenting on his new role, Dr. Asrani says, “The depth and breadth of our division, as well as the close relationships with our surgical colleagues, is refreshing and invigorating. We have the opportunity to build on this foundation and strengthen our leadership position in the field. At the end of the day, as long as we don’t lose sight of the fact that the needs of the patient come first, we will succeed in our mission of providing outstanding service throughout the continuum of care.”
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.
In April, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), American Heart Association (AHA) and the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) issued new joint guidelines for managing patients with heart failure. The most striking update to the guidelines is the addition of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors or SGLT2 inhibitors to guideline-directed medical therapy.
In 2021, more than 3,000 patients received a heart transplant in the United States and an additional 3,500 patients were awaiting transplantation. Expansion of the donor pool from a variety of factors has led to an increase in the number of heart transplants today compared to a decade ago. However, acute rejection, including acute cellular and antibody-mediated, continues to be a major source of morbidity and death among heart transplant recipients.
