A complex, 16-hour surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, has given an 11-year-old girl a second chance at life with a rare combined heart and liver transplant. The procedure, performed on an unnamed patient, represents a significant, though uncommon, advancement in treating children with severe heart and liver failure.
Combined heart-liver transplantation (CHLT) is increasingly utilized, particularly for patients who have undergone Fontan palliation – a procedure for single ventricle physiology, according to a 2022 review published in Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation. The need for CHLT is rising alongside the growing population of individuals with single ventricle physiology who require these complex interventions.
The surgery, detailed in a SciTechDaily report, involved replacing both the patient’s heart and liver simultaneously. Whereas the report does not specify the underlying conditions necessitating the dual transplant, it highlights the procedure’s success in providing a life-saving solution for a particularly challenging case. The Vanderbilt team, led by Kaitlyn M. Tracy, MD, has performed the largest series of “en bloc” CHLTx – 20 cases between July 2009 and December 2019 – in the United States, according to a publication in OPTECH TCS.
The decision to perform a combined transplant is typically reserved for patients with end-stage failure of both organs. The OPTECH TCS article notes that CHLTx remains the only option for long-term survival in such cases. The Vanderbilt team’s experience suggests a growing capacity within select centers to undertake these highly specialized procedures.
Recent advancements have also explored innovative approaches within dual-organ transplantation. A report in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation details a “heart after liver transplantation” (HALT) procedure performed on highly sensitized patients with end-stage heart and liver disease, suggesting a potential pathway for patients with complex immunological profiles. While the Vanderbilt case did not utilize the HALT approach, it underscores the evolving landscape of combined organ transplantation.
The Vanderbilt University Medical Center did not respond to requests for further details regarding the patient’s condition or the specifics of the surgical procedure as of February 22, 2026.
