Mayo Clinic Milestones

This year holds many major milestones for each of our three transplant sites. Mayo Clinic’s transplant history began in 1963 at the Rochester campus with the clinic’s first living kidney donor transplant and then first bone marrow transplant later that year. Since then, we have opened up dedicated transplant centers at each of our sites in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. The programs have expanded to include transplants for kidney, pancreas, liver, heart, lung, bone marrow, face, hand and transplants for children.

Since the first transplant in 1963, Mayo Clinic Rochester performed its 20,000th transplant in February 2020. Mayo Clinic in Arizona has performed over 6,000 since its opening in 1999 and Mayo Clinic in Florida has performed over 7,000 since its opening in 2000. Read more about our transplant volumes and outcomes here.

Both Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Florida are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year and as we look back on all the pioneering efforts and innovations we also look forward to the future of transplant with regenerative medicine considered to be at the forefront. Mayo Clinic researchers are studying alternatives to transplant including using stem cells to repair, replace or regenerate diseased cells in regenerative medicine. Read more about some of the transplant innovations here. Many groups, including Mayo Clinic are working to make advancements in transplantation.

Mayo Clinic is the largest integrated transplant center in the United States and as leaders in transplant care, has pioneered many surgeries and procedures. From the first patient in the United States to go home with an artificial heart, a combination surgery of a liver transplant with a gastric sleeve, to innovative ways of increasing the donor pool, and the largest kidney paired exchange program in the United States, experts at Mayo Clinic are leading initiatives through updated protocols and new technology.

Mayo Clinic has a long history of specialized teams of experts providing complex care to patients who need hope and healing and plans to continue carrying that legacy through studying state-of-the-art technologies and recent medical discoveries to transform how transplants are done in the future.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Read more about Mayo Clinic's 20,000th transplant performed in Minnesota
• View our volumes and outcomes by program
• Explore Mayo’s Transplant Center
• Request an appointment