Nicolas Jabbour, M.D., FACS

Nicolas Jabbour, M.D., FACS, joined the INTEGRIS team in July 2006 as director of the Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute (NZTI) at INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center.

Jabbour previously served as the associate director of multi-organ abdominal transplantation, director of transfusion-free medicine and surgery, and director of international patient care at University of Southern California (USC) University Hospital. He was also an associate professor of surgery at USC Keck School of Medicine and an attending staff member at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center, the Norris Cancer Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Jabbour plans to enhance the services provided at NZTI’s comprehensive transplant program to deal with all types of organ failure. NZTI surgeons currently perform heart, lung, pancreas and liver transplants.

Additionally, Jabbour hopes to create a comprehensive liver center at INTEGRIS. “We’re already well-known for liver transplantation,” Jabbour says. “But providing overall liver services for our patients will help establish INTEGRIS as a leader in liver care.” Jabbour stresses the need for liver care from start to finish, and hopes to provide specific services to meet that goal.

Transfusion-free surgery
Jabbour was a member of the team that performed the world’s first bloodless live-donor liver transplant in a Jehovah’s Witness patient, and plans to start a transfusion-free program at INTEGRIS. It will be the first such program in the state. Transfusion-free medicine allows a patient to experience minimal loss of blood, while maximizing blood conservation.

Live-donor transplantation
Live-donor transplantation means removing an organ (or part of an organ) from a living donor, rather than a cadaveric donor. Live donors are often members of the transplant recipient’s family. INTEGRIS transplant surgeons currently perform live donor kidney transplants; Jabbour hopes to once again make live-donor liver transplants available in the near future.

During a live donor liver transplant procedure, a portion of the healthy liver is taken from the live donor to replace the recipient’s failing liver. If successful, both parts of the split liver will regenerate to a normal size. The regeneration process usually takes six to eight weeks.

"I would truly like to see live-donor transplantation as an option for our patients,” Jabbour says.

There are many advantages to live-donor transplantation:

• It helps with organ shortage. There are currently 18,000 people on the waiting list for liver donation, yet there are only 6,000 deceased donors available for donation. Live-donor transplants could help reduce the organ shortage by increasing the field of potential donors.
• Time spent on the patient waiting list can be reduced significantly. Ten to 15 percent of people waiting for organs will die before an organ is available. Through live-donor transplantation, organs are readily available.
• Organ quality may be improved through live-donor transplantation.
• Doctors will have better access to a donor’s medical history, which can help determine if the donor is suitable long before the day of the surgery.
• It addresses the needs of specific patients whose underlying disease does not qualify them for early transplantation, such as diseases with recurrent infection, severe itching and mental confusion.

Live-donor transplantation may not be suitable for every patient. As with all surgeries, there are some risks.

• Live-donor transplantation submits the healthy individual and the recipient to possible complications, which can include death.
• Since live-donor transplantation is still new to the surgical world, the future is uncertain. We still don’t know what the long-term effects may be for the donor.
• Complication rates are higher in partial-liver recipients, specifically with regard to the connection to the patient’s biliary system (the duct system that channels bile secretion).

Pediatric transplantation
Jabbour hopes to offer the same medical and surgical options to younger patients that are available to adults.

“When we are faced with the need for pediatric live-donor transplant, we may look to the child’s family members – parents, aunts, uncles and siblings – as possible donors,” Jabbour says. “Since we remove a smaller portion of a healthy liver for pediatric transplant, the surgery may be less risky for the donor.”

Liver and pancreatic cancer treatment
Jabbour views the treatment of liver and pancreatic cancer as a team approach. Since INTEGRIS offers a wide range of services, physicians will have a greater chance to fight these types of cancer more effectively. “If we combine the institute’s complete understanding of the liver and pancreas with the advanced knowledge of staff oncologists, radiologists and pathologists, we can significantly affect the overall outcome of patients who suffer from this disease,” Jabbour says.

Jabbour is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care. He also is a board member of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management.

“Our plan is that we can distinguish NZTI as a national leader by offering these new cutting-edge procedures,” says Jabbour. “People will no longer have to travel great distances to receive the kind of care that we offer at INTEGRIS.”

To Learn More
If you would like more information about the Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute at INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, please call (405) 949-3349, or call toll-free at (800) 991-3349.

INTEGRIS Health 3300 N.W. Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK 73112 (405) 949-3011 | HealthLine: (888) 951-2277