HEPATOBILIARY SURGERY

On January 5, 2026, Seoul National University Hospital performed its 3,000th liver transplant — 38 years after it conducted Korea’s very first, in March 1988. The milestone was celebrated at the 28th Hepatobiliary Surgery Training Symposium in February, where faculty and alumni gathered to mark not just a number, but a programme that has repeatedly defined the frontier of transplant surgery in Asia and the world.

What makes the milestone remarkable in context is the composition of those 3,000 cases. Over the past decade, 50% of all transplants at SNUH involved patients with liver cirrhosis secondary to hepatocellular carcinoma, and of those, approximately 15–20% had advanced-stage liver cancer. A further 20–25% of all cases were blood-type incompatible transplants. In the past five years, repeat transplants have accounted for around 7% of total volume. Nationally, 18.8% of all paediatric liver transplants performed in Korea were carried out at SNUH. This is a programme that has disproportionately taken on the cases others could not or would not.

Outcomes have held steady even as case complexity has risen. Living donor transplant success rates have improved from 95.1% in the early 1,000-case period to 98.1% over the most recent 1,000. Among patients transplanted for liver cancer, the one-year survival rate stands at 92%. For those with liver cirrhosis, long-term follow-up data shows a 10-year survival rate of approximately 80%.

The surgical programme has also been a laboratory for minimally invasive technique. In 2017, SNUH performed the world’s 100th pure laparoscopic living donor hepatectomy; by 2021 it had reached 300, and that year completed the world’s first minimally invasive living donor liver transplant. Today, 100% of living donor surgeries are performed laparoscopically — reducing incision size, post-operative pain, and recovery burden for donors.

Surgeons from approximately 36 countries — around 260 visiting physicians in total — have come to SNUH to learn laparoscopic donor hepatectomy and robotic recipient transplant techniques, making SNUH a global reference centre for transplant surgical training.

Professor Lee Kwang-woong, Chief of Hepatobiliary Surgery, reflected: “Reaching 3,000 transplants is not simply about the number of procedures. It is the accumulated result of a care system committed to treating the most complex and critically ill patients. We will continue to develop our minimally invasive techniques, put donor safety first, and raise the standard of liver transplantation to the next level.”

CUMULATIVE TRANSPLANTS

3,000

Reached January 5, 2026 · 38 years since Korea’s first, 1988

RECENT 1,000 CASES · SUCCESS RATE

98.1%

Living donor transplant success — up from 95.1% in first 1,000 cases

LAPAROSCOPIC DONOR SURGERY

100%

All living donor operations now performed laparoscopically

PROGRAMME MILESTONES

1988  Korea’s first liver transplant

1999  1st living donor LT at SNUH · World’s 1st right posterior section living donor graft

2007  World’s 1st laparoscopic-assisted donor hepatectomy

2011  1,000th liver transplant

2017  World’s 100th pure laparoscopic donor hepatectomy

2021  World’s 1st minimally invasive living donor liver transplant

2023  2,000th living donor liver transplant (LDLT)

2026  3,000th cumulative liver transplant — January 5