Northwestern Surgery

Lung transplant has long been considered contraindicated in patients with active lung cancer. A Northwestern Medicine study led by Ankit Bharat, MD, challenges that paradigm in carefully selected patients with lung-limited stage 4 disease, raising new questions about transplant candidacy and care pathways. See more: news.nm.org/northwestern-m…

Since its launch, the ASPIRE program has cut our average referral to evaluation time by more than 75%, compared to previous wait times. Learn more about how this kidney transplant referral process helps providers connect their patient to a dedicated team of leading transplant experts faster: breakthroughsforphysicians.nm.org/aspire-program…

Quadruple transplant recipient, Elizabeth Wehrle, with the Northwestern Medicine team responsible for making her procedure possible. #NMBetter Read more here: news.nm.org/northwestern-m…

Happening now: Northwestern Medicine surgeons share story of a first-of-its- kind quadruple transplant procedure with patient Elizabeth Wehrle. Wehrle, a 36 year old mother from Iowa, received a double lung, liver, and kidney transplant. Featuring Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, transplant surgeon and director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center.

A Northwestern Medicine study published in JAMA challenges the long-standing transplant principle that patients with active lung cancer shouldn’t be considered for lung transplant. Among select patients with stage 4 lung cancer limited to the lungs, one-year survival was 100% following lung transplant compared to 41% with medical therapy alone. See more: news.nm.org/northwestern-m… #LungCancer #LungTransplant

In 1963, Dr Hardy reported the first human lung transplant in JAMA—in a patient with lung cancer doi.org/10.1001/jama.1…. After decades of concern such as outlined in NEJM doi.org/10.1056/NEJM19…, cancers emerged as a contraindication for lung transplant. Our @JAMA_current paper revisits this jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…. With modern staging, modified surgical technique, contemporary multidisciplinary case, we can provide hope for patients with Stage IV medically refractory cancers limited to the lungs.

Can't believe it's almost been a whole week that our new interns @KarenYuan_Med and @SeungBaek26 have been with us! Everyone say hello! 👋🏾

“The overwhelming benefit is that you avoid a large piece of mesh in your groin. Mesh is permanent.” Megan Melland-Smith, MD, was featured in a WBBM Newsradio story to highlight Shouldice repair, a unique procedure that was first done during World War II, and recently performed at Northwestern Medicine, in which surgeons use a patient’s own tissue for groin hernia repair. Read the full article here: audacy.com/wbbm780/news/l…

Appreciated the opportunity to discuss our findings evaluating KRAS mutant ctDNA by ddPCR in localized pancreas cancer live on @GoodDayChicago on @fox32news. @NMSurgery @NUFeinbergMed @NorthwesternU #ChawlaTranslationalLab youtube.com/watch?v=BonrG6…

“For patients who qualify, liver transplantation turns hospice into hope," says Satish Nadig, director, Comprehensive Transplant Center and chief of Organ Transplantation in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Nadig and Zachary Dietch, MD, transplant surgeon and assistant professor of organ transplantation in the Department of Surgery, joined CBS News alongside patient and cancer survivor Amy Piccoli to discuss how a liver transplant procedure helped Piccoli reclaim her life after a Stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis. Read the full story: cbsnews.com/news/northwest…

Dinee C. Simpson, MD, chief health equity executive at Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and co-director of Northwestern Medicine John and Kathy Schreiber Community Health Institute, speaks to the mission of the newly established institute. Read more about the work being done to reduce gaps in access to care and improve health outcomes in Chicago-area communities: nm.org/about-us/nm-co…

An 87-years-old patient, the oldest known woman to receive a kidney transplant in the state, needed a new kidney to survive. The high risks at her age led other health systems to deem her ineligible for a transplant. It wasn’t until she came to Northwestern Memorial Hospital that she finally found hope. Read the full story: news.nm.org/87-year-old-be…

Megan Melland-Smith, MD, outlines her approach to evaluating and managing highly complex hernia cases with transversus abdominis release (TAR). She gives a detailed walk-through of posterior component separation with TAR and emphasizes the role of imaging, patient selection and individualized operative planning on clinical outcomes. Watch the full video detailing the procedure here: youtube.com/watch?v=IW-tw3…

Great discussion at our General Surgery Grand Rounds with Dr. Rana Pullatt @MedUnivSC on obesity treatments, GLP-1, surgery, and robotic advances! #NUSurgery #GrandRounds

We had a marvelous time celebrating our graduating fellows, Dr. Chao and Dr. Crutcher, with a little kayak kickback! 🛶 Thank you to @karenholab for putting it together! 💜

A WWII-era hernia repair technique is making a comeback — offering patients @NorthwesternMed @NMGastro a mesh-free option to stay active after surgery. FULL STORY: buff.ly/xzCXvMq

Join Northwestern Medicine physicians and trainees as they share research, insights, and reflections from cardiothoracic surgery graduation and abstract presentation day. ⬇️

Round up of our presenters at #ATC2026Boston Day 4. Presenter 1: Joseph Leventhal, MD, PhD: “Clinical Transplant Tolerance: What Does the Future Hold?” Presenter 2: Vinayak Rohan, MD: “Developing an Outpatient Kidney Transplant Model: Insights from the AWAKE Trial” Presenter 3: Dempsey Hughes, MD: “What’s Happening on the Hill: Current Legislative Proposals and Opportunities for Transplant Community Action”

Our team participated in the ATC Inaugural Transplant Trivia Throwdown. Northwestern Medicine took home the victory against 8 teams, competing in the finals against Emory Transplant Center. 🏆 Our team members were: Shilpa Pedapati, MD, transplant nephrology fellow Jes Sanders, MD, general surgery resident Devin Srivastava, AB, medical student Derrick Christopher, MD, Transplant Surgeon, as the team coach

Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, Chief Division of Transplantation at Northwestern Medicine and ATC 2026 Executive Planning Committee Co-Chair, had the distinct honor of introducing Nobel Prize recipient, Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, to present the Paul I. Terasaki State-of-the-Art Lecture: Paradigm Shift in mRNA Technology and Applications for Transplant Medicine. Dr. Weissman is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation at the Perelman School of Medicine.