Duke has a long and proud history in transplantation. Our work in transplant services began in February 1965 when Duke became one of the first institutions in the country to successfully establish a kidney transplant program. Since then, Duke’s transplantation programs have achieved many more national and regional milestones.

• The first successful liver transplant in North Carolina was performed at Duke in 1984, followed by North Carolina's first successful heart transplant in 1985.
• Duke is proud to have had the first adult autologous bone marrow transplant program in the country to begin performing bone marrow transplants in an outpatient setting in 1992.
• The first successful pediatric allogeneic unrelated umbilical cord blood transplant in the world was performed at Duke in 1993.
• In 1994 Duke surgeons performed the first ever successful thymus transplant.
• The world’s first planned tandem lung and bone marrow transplant was performed at Duke in 2010.

Duke’s experience translates to success. Survival rates for all Duke transplant patients consistently surpass national transplant survival averages.