University of Rochester Medical Center officials said Dr. Igor Gosev and his solid organ transplant team performed 40 heart transplant surgeries at the hospital last year, nearly doubling the amount from the previous year.
Gosev said the increase is due to referrals from other institutions and other systemic changes.
“We have created more structure around how we assess the hearts and how we accept them,” he said. “Which allowed us to accept more hearts and serve more patients.”
Gosev said the program also expanded the procedure to conditions that were not done in the past, like adult congenital heart failure.
The center also provided close to 60 replacement therapies with mechanical hearts in 2023, Gosev said.
“The success of offering someone this very precious gift of life is endless.” he said. “We are very proud that we can offer the best service to our upstate New York patients.”
“The satisfaction of seeing someone wake up with a new heart and being able to live another 15, 20 years of life is really exceptional,” he said. “I think that's what drives me and the whole team.”
URMC is the only center in the upstate New York region that performs heart and liver transplants.
In total, more than 200 organs were transplanted last year by the program, including kidneys, livers and pancreas.
The program has already performed one heart transplant surgery in the new year.
