Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute performs record number of transplants in 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo.  — Saint Luke’s cardiac transplant program – the only one of its kind in the region – set a new record in 2012 for transplants. A total of 47 transplants were performed in 2012, the most ever performed in a single year at the center. The previous record was set in 2010 with 43 transplants.

Saint Luke’s offers the only adult cardiac transplant center in Kansas City. The program regularly surpasses national benchmarks for volumes and survival and ranks among the top 10 for number of adult transplants nationwide. While 80 percent of U.S. programs perform 20 or fewer heart transplants a year, Saint Luke’s averages 30 or more.

Average waiting time for a donor heart is significantly shorter at Saint Luke’s than it is for the U.S. as a whole - five months vs. 16 months. Patients who undergo heart transplantation at Saint Luke’s also have higher survival rates than the American average.

“This is an exciting milestone in the area’s only cardiac transplantation program,” said Michael Borkon, M.D., surgical director of cardiac transplantation at Saint Luke’s “It’s a real testament to the dedicated and highly experienced team of heart transplant specialists at Saint Luke’s.”

The heart transplant program was recently awarded the Medal of Honor for Organ Donation from the Department of Health and Human Services for its success in increasing the number of organs available for donation – the only heart transplant program in the state to receive this award. “Thanks to the selfless generosity of donor families, many people in the Missouri-Kansas-Arkansas area have received a second chance at life through transplantation,” said cardiologist Andrew Kao, M.D., medical director, Saint Luke’s cardiac transplantation program.

The program has transplanted 570 patients since its inception in 1985.