Thomas Starzl

Thomas Earl Starzl ( born March 11, 1926 in Le Mars, Iowa) is an American surgeon and pioneer of transplantation medicine. In 1967, Starzl out the first successful liver transplant.

Short Biography

Starzl was the son of a newspaper editor and science fiction author Roman Frederick Starzl (1899-1976) in the small town of Le Mars in the Midwestern United States to the world. His original intention to become a priest, he gave up when his mother died of breast cancer. Instead, he studied biology at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science. He then went to Northwestern University in Chicago, where in 1950 his Master of Science in the Department of Anatomy and 1952 his Ph. D. and his MD received in neurophysiology.

Through his work at Northwestern University, the University of Colorado and later at the University of Pittsburgh Starzl was an internationally recognized expert in transplantation medicine. Starzl introduced many surgical techniques, which significantly improved the long-term survival of patients. In 1963, he took the world's first liver transplant. The patient, a three year old boy with biliary atresia ( congenital absence of the intrahepatic bile ducts with retention of the bile ), but died during surgery from blood loss due to uncontrollable coagulopathy (clotting disorders). In 1967, he succeeded the first truly successful transplantation with a survival duration of patients of more than one year. In addition, Starzl contributed decisively to knowledge about techniques for organ removal and storage, on the criteria for selecting suitable transplant recipients, especially on the use of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection. On Starzls work today established in transplantation medicine application of substances cyclosporin, tacrolimus and sirolimus is declining. 1999 Starzl was according to the Institute for Scientific Information of the most cited author of medical publications. Since 2006, he has been awarded the National Medal of Science. In 2012 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.

Writings (selection )

  • TE Starzl, TL Marchioro, KN Vonkaulla, G. Hermann, RS Brittain, WR Waddell: Homo transplantation of the liver in humans. In: Surgery, gynecology & obstetrics. Volume 117, December 1963, pp. 659-676, ISSN 0039-6087. PMID 14,100,514th PMC 2.63466 million ( free full text ).
  • TE Starzl, S. Iwatsuki, DH Van Thiel, JC Gartner, BJ Zitelli, JJ Malatack, RR Schade, BW Shaw, TR Hakala, JT Rosenthal, KA Porter: Evolution of liver transplantation. In: Hepatology (Baltimore, Md. ). Volume 2, Number 5, Sept- Oct 1982, pp. 614-636, ISSN 0270-9139. PMID 6749635th PMC 2972731 (Free full text ). (Review).
  • TE Starzl, S. Iwatsuki, CO Esquivel, S. Todo, I. Kam, S. Lynch, RD Gordon, BW Shaw: Refinements in the surgical technique of liver transplantation. In: Seminars in Liver Disease. Volume 5, Number 4, November 1985, pp. 349-356, ISSN 0272-8087. doi: 10.1055/s-2008-1040632. PMID 3909429th PMC 3075625 (Free full text ).
  • TE Starzl, S. Todo, J. Fung, AJ Demetris, R. Venkataramman, A. Jain: FK 506 for liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantation. In: Lancet. Volume 2, Number 8670, October 1989, pp. 1000-1004, ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 2478846th PMC 2966318 (Free full text ).
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746056
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