The two-year Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, provides education, surgical experience, and clinical training in all aspects of multi-organ abdominal transplant and the care of transplant patients. 

This fellowship provides a comprehensive training experience for individuals focused on attaining expertise in a modern multi-organ transplant program. We aim to train future leaders in transplant surgery around the world.

We have a comprehensive abdominal transplant program including liver transplantation (deceased donor and living donor transplants), kidney transplantation (deceased donor and living donor transplantation), pancreas transplantation, and hepatobiliary and pancreas surgery. 

Our fellows graduate in the highest percentiles for individual case volume in the nation. In 2022, Mayo Clinic surgeons at the Arizona campus performed approximately 250 liver transplants, 475 kidney transplants, and 30 pancreas transplants. We have been the largest abdominal transplant program in the U.S. by volume for several years and have maintained strong outcomes as measured by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.

As a fellow, you will train in a supportive faculty environment with abundant opportunities for clinical and academic development. Fellows will be well prepared to enter a career performing liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantation, organ procurement, research, and administrative skills essential to success in the modern transplant surgery environment.

Upon successful completion of this fellowship, you will be proficient and knowledgeable in:

• Liver transplant from brain death and circulatory death donors
• Multi-organ procurement
• Normothermic mechanical perfusion of liver grafts
• Kidney transplant
• Pancreas transplant
• Simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplant
• Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy
• Transplant pharmacology
• Immunosuppression therapy and management
• Immunobiology
• Medical management of transplant complications
• Transplant ethics and economics of transplantation
• Recipient and donor selection criteria for liver, kidney, and pancreas transplants
• Role of United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in allocation and regulation of solid organs in the U.S.
• Exposure to open, laparoscopic, and robotic HPB procedures

You are immersed in a structured, multidisciplinary, UNOS-approved transplant program and exposed to the entire continuum of the organ transplant process:

• Basic knowledge of diseases leading to end-stage organ failure
• Involvement in pre-transplant evaluation and candidate selection process
• Performing transplant procedures
• Immediate post-transplant care and management
• Long-term post-transplant management

Accreditation

The Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship is accredited by the Transplant Accreditation and Certification Council (TACC) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS).

The program is certified by the TACC to train two fellows each year.

Certification

Our fellows have excelled on the TACC Knowledge Assessment issued each year. Fellows will be eligible for the TACC certification pathway after fellowship graduation.

Program history

The transplant program at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale has been clinically active since 1999 and has grown to be one of the largest solid organ transplant programs in the U.S. The Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship graduated its first fellow in 2015. There is an excellent track record of job placement in transplant centers in the U.S. and abroad. Mayo Clinic fellows gain an unparalleled clinical experience from supportive faculty, a robust transplant center practice model, and a strong knowledge base to serve as a foundation for excellence.

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