Amid the growing need for additional transplant services in the state, Keck Medicine of USC has opened a new location in Las Vegas that will provide specialized care for patients in Las Vegas and surrounding communities who need a liver or heart transplant.  

The clinic is the first in Nevada to offer in-state heart transplant services. 

“Organ transplantation offers patients new hope and may extend lives,” said Marty Sargeant, MBA, CEO of Keck Medical Center of USC. “We are proud to bring our lifesaving care and clinical expertise to Nevada and look forward to working with local physicians, patients, families and the community to promote optimal health for patients in need.” 

Patients who undergo transplantation through Keck Medicine have access to a multidisciplinary team of specialists including USC Transplant Institute surgeons, physicians, nurses, social workers and counselors, specially trained dietitians and pharmacists, and a dedicated transplant coordinator to manage care throughout all phases of transplantation.  

When patients visit the Las Vegas location, they will first undergo a transplant evaluation, which may include medical imaging and diagnostic tests conducted by other local medical providers, to determine if they are candidates for transplantation.  

Upon completing evaluation and if matched with an appropriate organ donor, patients may undergo transplantation at Keck Hospital of USC in Los Angeles and return for post-surgical follow-up care at the Las Vegas location. 

Excellence in heart transplant care 

The USC Heart Transplant Program provides expert care for heart failure and other serious conditions that may require a heart transplant. The program’s one-year survival post-transplant outcomes exceed the national average, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), which gathers national organ transplant data.  

“As a pioneer in heart transplantation with some of the best post-transplant outcomes, Keck Medicine is often able to successfully treat patients who traditionally might not have been considered candidates for transplant,” said Raymond Lee, MD, surgical director of the USC Heart Transplant Program and mechanical circulatory support with Keck Medicine. 

The transplant program offers patients access to state-of-the-art care, including noninvasive heart transplant rejection testing, which helps reduce the need for invasive biopsies.  

“Our new clinic addresses an important need for increased access to specialized and compassionate care for patients in need of a heart transplant in Las Vegas and the surrounding communities,” said Ajay Vaidya, MD, medical director of the USC Heart Transplant Program and cardiologist with Keck Medicine. 

Advanced liver transplant care 

The USC Liver Transplant Program has been a leader in liver transplantation for more than 25 years. In January 2024, Keck Hospital outperformed other medical centers as the only liver transplant program in Southern California to receive a 5-tier rating from the SRTR, recognizing Keck Hospital’s one year organ survival rate.  

The transplant team, which treats all types of liver disease and conditions, specializes in several types of liver transplantation, including deceased-donor, transfusion-free and living-donor liver transplants, when a portion of the liver from a healthy person is removed and transplanted into the patient. 

“Our extensive experience and advanced care capabilities support our goal of providing patients with the best possible outcomes and greatest chance of survival after transplantation,” said Jeffrey Kahn, MD, medical director of the USC Liver Transplant Program and hepatologist with Keck Medicine.  

“As a leader in liver transplantation that treats some of the most complex cases, we understand the importance of easily accessible care. We are excited to work closely with Las Vegas patients in their home city to help guide them through their transplant journey,” said Aaron Ahearn, MD, PhD, surgical director of the USC Liver Transplant Program and hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon with Keck Medicine. 

The new clinic is located at 2911 N. Tenaya Way, Suite 106, Las Vegas, NV 89128. 

For more information on services and treatment offered at the transplant clinic, please click here. You can learn more about the USC Transplant Institute here.  

Keck Medicine’s growing local presence 

In addition to the new transplant care clinic, Keck Medicine has provided health care to the members and families of the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas since 2019. Keck Medicine provides primary care, including internal medicine and pediatric care, and physical therapy at two Culinary Health Center locations across the Las Vegas Valley.

Pinpoint precision

Before the surgery, Vinay Duddalwar, MD, associate professor of clinical radiology, created three-dimensional animated maps of the patient’s chest and abdomen so that surgeons could pre-plan their entire surgical strategy with millimeter precision. The procedure began with Namir Katkhouda, MD, PhD, professor of surgery, performing a surgical maneuver to control blood flow to the patient’s liver. Next, Gill used the latest-generation Xi da Vinci surgical robot to completely dissect the tumor-bearing kidney through small keyhole incisions in the patient’s abdomen to control various blood vessels, which allowed him access around and into the inferior vena cava where the cancer had spread. Then Mark Cunningham, MD, associate professor of clinical surgery, put the patient on a heart-lung bypass machine to create a bloodless environment for tumor removal. He opened the patient’s heart using a minimally invasive incision through the rib cage.

Cunningham and Gill then worked quickly and simultaneously from the chest and abdomen to remove the tumor thrombus from the heart and inferior vena cava, respectively, with Cunningham working from the chest downward and Gill working from the abdomen upward. All the while, Duraiyah Thangathurai, MD, professor of clinical anesthesiology and chief of critical care medicine, monitored the patient’s organ function, keeping a close eye on the patient’s heart using an esophageal echo probe. If a portion of the tumor were to break off into the heart or lungs, the patient would die instantly.

“We are proud of our ability to coordinate such complex efforts between the cardiac and urologic surgical teams with skill and dexterity,” Cunningham said. “This was the driver of our success and exactly the standard we strive for across the institution.”
According to the American Cancer Society, there are approximately 64,000 new cases of kidney cancer diagnosed each year. Only a small fraction of those patients (about 10 percent) have cancer that spreads through the blood vessels without metastasizing to other organs. In a small portion of these patients, the kidney cancer advances all the way up the vena cava into the heart, often rather rapidly. While this is a relatively rare occurrence, this condition could result in sudden death at any time from fragments of the tumor breaking off into the heart and lungs and surgery is absolutely necessary.

— Mary Dacuma