Quarterly Newsletter

The Spring 2026 issue previews SATA’s annual symposium at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montreal (May 3–4, 2026) and welcomes Dr. Lorenzo De Marchi as the new SATA President. Inside: UNOS news on CMS reforms, the FY26 federal funding package, and UNOS’s response to recent Bloomberg allegations; research on back-to-base machine perfusion, ILTS-iLDLT 2025 living donor safety guidelines, and HCC recurrence with intraoperative blood salvage; a feature on ICU liberation after liver transplant and where ERAS stands today; and a program spotlight on the University of Pennsylvania, including their pioneering work in extracorporeal liver cross-circulation with genetically modified pig livers.

The Summer 2025 issue explores how UNOS uses transplant data to drive system-wide improvements and clarifies the distinct roles of donor and transplant hospitals within the OPTN framework. Inside: a member feature with Dr. Natalie Smith, Director of Liver Transplant at Mount Sinai; research on veno-venous bypass, vasopressin and AKI risk, and vasoplegia management across heart/lung/liver transplant; a program spotlight on the University of Florida Health lung transplant program in Gainesville; and a Fellowship Committee update on the newly launched SATA Liver Transplant Anesthesia Fellow Journal Club.

The Winter 2025 issue marks two landmark milestones for SATA: official designation as an ASA-affiliated subspecialty society, and the awarding of the first-ever Fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia (FSATA) credential to Dr. Michael D. Kaufman. Inside: 2025 Council updates including the SATA Seed Grant award and the move of clinical resources to the C8 Health platform; a UNOS recap on 48,000+ transplants performed in 2024; a member feature with Dr. Kyota Fukazawa; research updates on DCD beating-heart transplant, glycemic control during liver transplant, and robotic donor hepatectomy; a special topic on RVSP estimation by TEE; and a program spotlight on Emory University Hospital.

The Spring 2024 issue celebrates 2023 as the first year on record with more than 10,000 liver transplants performed in the U.S., alongside policy changes driving a 6% increase in deceased kidney donors. Inside: research on aging transplant recipients, alcohol relapse, machine perfusion donor expansion, and DCD multiorgan heart transplantation; a recap of the SATA National Symposium in Seattle and the announcement of SATA’s application to become an ASA subspecialty society; a special topic on lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum; a program spotlight on UCLA’s abdominal transplant program; and a member feature with Dr. Christine Nguyen-Buckley.

The Winter 2023 issue covers UNOS’s new national liver pairing program, waiting-time adjustments for kidney candidates affected by historical race-based eGFR calculations, and a recap of 2022 — a record-setting year with more than 42,800 transplants performed in the U.S. Inside: research on the Liver Transplant Risk Score, remimazolam case management, the survival benefit of living donor liver transplant, and a quality initiative driving immediate post-op extubation from 13% to 87%. Plus a special topic on diagnosing IVC stenosis with TEE, a spotlight on VCU’s Hume/Lee Transplant Center, and a Council report on regional meetings, the new ILTS-SATA pre-meeting at ASA, and SATA’s international representation in Korea and Chile.

The Spring 2023 issue recaps the SATA Annual Meeting in Denver, held in conjunction with IARS on April 17. Inside: UNOS updates on MELD 3.0, the new continuous distribution lung allocation policy, and the HRSA OPTN modernization initiative; research on liver transplant for cholangiocarcinoma and ILTS enhanced recovery recommendations; a special topic on intracardiac thrombosis during liver transplantation; a program spotlight on the Mayo Clinic Enterprise abdominal transplant program across Rochester, Florida, and Arizona; and the announcement of the inaugural SATA Seed Grant recipient.

The Summer 2022 issue leads with the OPTN Board’s landmark vote to eliminate race-based GFR calculations from transplant listing — a major step toward equitable access — alongside the latest data on rising kidney transplant rates among minority and pediatric candidates. Inside: a curated roundup of noteworthy abdominal transplant literature from 2021, two deep-dives on imminent death donation and normothermic ex vivo perfusion, and a program spotlight on Duke University Medical Center’s cardiothoracic transplant program.

The Fall 2022 issue marks the U.S. reaching 1 million organ transplants, recaps the first two years of the acuity-circles allocation policy, and previews the rollout of the UNOS Organ Tracking Service. Inside: research updates on anesthetic choice and reperfusion syndrome, bariatric surgery in transplant candidates, normothermic machine perfusion, and HCC cell salvage; a special topic on intrapulmonary shunting and paradoxical air embolism during liver transplantation; a program spotlight on Saint Louis University Medical Center; and the announcement of SATA’s new Accessibility & Inclusion Committee and the inaugural Seed Grant funding cycle.

The Winter 2021 issue rounds up the latest UNOS policy developments, recaps the SATA Council’s year-end progress — new collaborations, a new Critical Care Medicine Committee, and the SATA-Data Collection Project — and spotlights the Miami Transplant Institute. Inside: research updates on expanded HCC criteria and ex vivo machine perfusion, a Quality & Standards Committee update on published practice-pattern survey work, and a full slate of upcoming regional and national meetings heading into 2022.