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.
Patients who live in the Austin area can now undergo liver transplant evaluations (LTE) at the Baylor Scott & White Transplant Hepatology Clinic in Round Rock, Texas. The first LTEs outside of Baylor University Medical Center (Baylor Dallas), part of Baylor Scott & White Health, and Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth, began the last week of January.
In Texas, a disproportionate number of people have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and NASH cirrhosis. Combine these conditions with alcohol misuse, and you have a state with the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation.
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.
