Intestinal & Multivisceral Transplant Program

The Boston Children’s Intestinal and Multivisceral Transplant Program is one of the few pediatric programs in the country that performs intestine, combined liver-intestine, and multivisceral transplantation. Since the program’s inception in 2004, our ability to medically manage and rehabilitate patients has dramatically progressed, which means fewer and fewer patients are requiring transplants.

We bring a collaborative and unique approach to the treatment of every child. The program is closely integrated with Boston Children’s Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation, which provides innovative medical, nutritional, and surgical options for children with intestinal failure, and the Boston Children’s Hospital Motility and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders Center, which covers all facets of motility and functional GI disorders.

If it is determined that a transplant is the best option for your child, our multidisciplinary team will optimize your child’s health to have the best chance for recovery and the best possible quality of life.

Our team of specialists treats a variety of diagnoses, including:

• Hirschsprung's disease
• intestinal atresia and stenosis
• gastroschisis
• necrotizing enterocolitis
• malabsorption
• microvillus inclusion disease
• pseudo-obstruction
• short bowel syndrome
• tumors
• volvulus

Our intestinal and multivisceral transplant team brings pediatric expertise to the diagnosis and treatment of every condition leading to intestinal failure. The patients we treat are often very young and very small, and the conditions leading to transplant frequently differ significantly from those leading to transplant in adults. All of the medical doctors in our program are board-certified in pediatric transplant hepatology, which means they have a deeper knowledge of the conditions and care surrounding intestine and multivisceral transplantation in children.

Throughout the transplant journey, our team remains a resource for support. As your child transitions to adulthood, we will we work with them to understand how to manage their own health care and teach them to cope with the challenges of adhering to a medication schedule.

Boston Children’s clinicians and investigators are responsible for many clinical and research firsts. Heung Bae Kim, MD, director of the Pediatric Transplant Center, and Tom Jaksic, MD, PhD, surgical director of the Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation, developed the serial transverse enteroplasty (STEP) procedure, a surgical technique for bowel lengthening.

The STEP procedure allows some children to wean completely from parenteral nutrition and avoid the need for intestinal transplantation altogether.