Latino Liver Program

At NYU Langone’s Latino Liver Program—part of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute—we provide the most medically advanced and culturally conscious care to Hispanic and Latino children and adults who need or may need a liver transplant or liver surgery. By removing a potential language barrier, our bilingual hepatologists, transplant surgeons, and nurse practitioners help you and your family more easily understand and navigate the transplant or liver surgery process and receive the support you need before, during, and after surgery.

In addition to being comfortable communicating in Spanish, the transplant hepatologists, surgeons, infectious disease specialists, pulmonologists, nephrologists, and nurse practitioners, general cardiologists, and heart failure specialists who make up our multidisciplinary team also understand the many cultural nuances within the larger Latino community.

Liver transplant care for children is provided through the Pediatric Liver Disease and Transplant Program, part of Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone Health. Our surgeons offer whole liver transplant, from a deceased donor; split liver transplant, in which the liver from a deceased donor is divided in two, providing organs for two different patients; and living donor transplant, in which a person donates a portion of their liver to the patient.

Addressing a Growing Need

In the United States, the rate of chronic liver disease among people of Hispanic and Latino ethnicity is twice that of the non-Hispanic White population. Currently, Hispanic and Latino people make up roughly 20 percent of both the national liver transplant waitlist and of liver transplant recipients. Significant disparities in access to liver transplantation exists for these groups in the form of lower referral rates to liver transplant centers, lower rates of placement on the liver transplant waitlist, higher waitlist removal rates, and lower liver transplant rates. Our goal is to help address these disparities.

To learn more about NYU Langone’s Latino Liver Program, call 212-263-8133. Read about our program in Spanish.